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#2: The Detail’s in the Devil
It’s easy to think of Mars as a dead world. Cold, small, and dry, it seems unchanging through our telescopes.
Almost.
Mars has an atmosphere, though it’s thin: about 1% of Earth’s atmospheric pressure, it doesn’t seem capable of doing much. But when you have a robotic probe like the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and its 50-cm resolution orbiting the Red Planet, you see far, far more, and learn that the air of Mars can create beauty.
The image above shows a region of Mars near its mid-lower northern latitudes. It’s a close-up of the bed of a crater, and you can see the ripples of sand dunes, endemic on the Martian surface. The sand is similar to beach sand here on Earth, but is dark in color because it’s made of basalt, a greyish rock. Then why is Mars so red? It’s because of much finer-grain dust, which is reddish in hue. The dust lies on top of the sand, making everything look red.
But then there’s that thin Martian air. Rising heat from the plains can blow through cooler air above, forming vortices like mini-tornadoes called dust devils. These then roll across the surface, picking up the lighter red dust but leaving behind the heavier, darker sand grains. What remains, as seen from above, are these gorgeous swirls, the fingerprints of the geology and weather of Mars.
This image has a resolution of about a meter per pixel, and is only a half kilometer (.3 miles) across. The detail in it is phenomenal! It makes me wonder what it would look like to actually soar above the surface of Mars in a glider, tipped and tilted by the vagaries of the Martian winds. But then, it probably looks just like this. With less airsickness.
Original news story (with muchly embiggened version)
Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
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December 15th, 2009 at 6:25 am
Couldn’t agree more. Good choice Phil.
December 15th, 2009 at 6:48 am
[...] Top Ten Astronomy Pictures of 2009 | Bad Astronomy | Discover Magazine. [...]
December 15th, 2009 at 6:55 am
[...] stelle by d3vcat Phil Plait, il Bad Astronomer, ha, come ogni anno, creato la sua personale top-ten di immagini [...]
December 15th, 2009 at 6:58 am
All I am seeing in #2 is someone’s nude posterior with some sort of tribal tattoo..
Great choices, they are all mind-blowing.
December 15th, 2009 at 6:59 am
Phil, Phil, Phil. Not the Hubble ultra deep field in the near infrared? That is in my view the most important and striking astronomical photograph ever taken, just barely ahead of the original visible light ultra deep field.
December 15th, 2009 at 7:04 am
I agree with Rowan. Without the hint of scale, #2 looks positively humanoid.
December 15th, 2009 at 7:11 am
Picture #2 was my desktop at work for about a month before I saw the beautiful Galactic Center picture from Chandra.
Picture #1 is printed and stuck to the wall of my cubicle not 4 feet from where I currently sit, always there reminding me how freakin’ awesome humanity is.
December 15th, 2009 at 7:38 am
#6 reminds me of the TOS episode “Who Mourns for Adonais?”
http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Who_Mourns_for_Adonais%3F_%28episode%29
December 15th, 2009 at 7:39 am
Great selection and, as always, amazing commentary.
I just wish Phil had picked a few images/photos from amateur astronomers. There are tons of stunning photos out there (just look at AAPOD).
I, personally, am still amazed at Robert Mikaelyan’s Fireball Meteor Over Groningen:
December 15th, 2009 at 8:14 am
scibuff (#9): that one was in my list of choices, but I simply couldn’t fit them all in.
RBH (#5): I liked that one too, but I liked the NGC 4522 one I posted better, and it has lots of little galaxies too. I try not to have the pix overlap in content too much, which is one reason the choice is so hard every year.
I may yet collect the ones I didn’t post and make a second entry for them.
December 15th, 2009 at 8:18 am
[...] will soon be revealing new wonders and mysteries. There is no one better to judge a top 10 than Phil Plait over at Bad Astronomy, a man who has been fighting the good fight against conspiracy theorists, anti-vaccine wackos and [...]
December 15th, 2009 at 8:22 am
Phil, nicely, nicely done. I used to be an astronomer myself before budget cuts forced me into a new line of work. I must say that I’ve been a little more than inspired by your work to find a way back into the field “by hook or by crook.” Though I may not land a paying gig any time soon, you’ve helped me realize there’s no reason I cannot re-embark on the public outreach side of astronomy. I’ll be starting a new blog and continuing to offer my services to give public talks. Thanks again Phil for reminding me why I got into this business in the first place. Have a wonderful holiday season.
December 15th, 2009 at 8:33 am
Phil, your comment on Pandora’s Galaxy (#10) reminds me of the game Euphloria: “I rather like the poetic image of babies erupting out of the galaxy like dandelion seeds on the intergalactic wind.”
December 15th, 2009 at 8:39 am
I remember the Apollo 11 landing, which happened in the evening. My family stayed up to watch the live pictures. So did the rest of the world with access to TV, except for the “lunar deniers” apparently.
A few months later, I attended a convocation at Purdue University, where Neil Armstrong was awarded an honorary doctorate. Needless to say, that was a highlight of my college experience.
December 15th, 2009 at 8:44 am
Wow! I don’t envy you the task of culling images for the Top Ten list this year! I can’t help but wonder which was the Number 11 you tweeted about? That glorious and ginormous shadowy Saturn at equinox..? The impact on Jupiter..? But yes, truly the number one image of the year is indeed the Apollo lander.
December 15th, 2009 at 8:48 am
scibuff,
That photo, unfortunately, reminds me of the Columbia disaster.
December 15th, 2009 at 9:04 am
I thought #2 was the BA’s tatoo. Maybe it is.
December 15th, 2009 at 9:16 am
[...] my favorite astronomer, Phil Plait, has put up his ten favorite astronomy photos of 2009. He says that it is always hard narrowing it down to just ten photos, but I imagine that it was [...]
December 15th, 2009 at 9:29 am
[...] Randi Educational Foundation, has posted his 10 favorite astronomy pictures of 2009 on his blog, Bad Astronomy. The crescent Earth is my favorite of the 10, but Plait had it at #8. There are some fantastic [...]
December 15th, 2009 at 9:36 am
@AstralProjectile … saw his tattoo at TAM London, it’s actually quite different
December 15th, 2009 at 9:48 am
Love the Spinal Tap reference!
December 15th, 2009 at 9:49 am
Wow! I am always amazed at the staggering beauty of the universe we live in!
December 15th, 2009 at 9:57 am
Nicely done.
December 15th, 2009 at 10:02 am
Hmmm. This is the first year you’ve done this segment that I’ve disagreed completely with you. Not a single one of those images would have been in my top ten of 2009. 9 out of my 10 would have come from Cassini though, and I suspect that you wanted some variety.
Speaking of which, I just had an idea that you may or may not like: perhaps next year you could do a “best picture in AAAA category”, with 10 or 15 different categories:).
December 15th, 2009 at 10:09 am
What, no Saturn equinox pictures? I’m surprised considering how many times you’ve posted them.
December 15th, 2009 at 10:26 am
I’m sorry, since I just don’t have a sense of wonder, I cannot fully appreciate these photos.
Nevermind that some of them nearly moved me to tears!
December 15th, 2009 at 10:44 am
I love the crescent earth, but I guess it’s not very exotic compared to some of the others.
December 15th, 2009 at 10:55 am
Ooooh! Aaaaah! Oooooh! Aaaaah!
December 15th, 2009 at 11:20 am
Wow, what a post Phil! And what pictures. I don’t comment much, but I follow your blog and your work pretty much daily. Please keep on doing it!
December 15th, 2009 at 11:28 am
Great choices! I do not envy your task of of leaving out so many others, but I feel that you made so very good picks. My favorite is #10, for some reason, I just love looking at different kinds of galaxies. By the way, I really like the meshing of the Nietzsche quote into the title of #7.
December 15th, 2009 at 11:42 am
#6 reminds me of Red Dwarf… “Coke Adds Life”
December 15th, 2009 at 11:43 am
#2 was my desktop since you put it up until about a week ago when I switched to “Hothmas”.
I love love love that picture and that’s awesome it was your #2
December 15th, 2009 at 12:04 pm
I don’t like the “Top Ten Astronomy Pictures Of 2009″ banner image… Phil, you should really do something of better to introduce such amazing images.
December 15th, 2009 at 12:15 pm
When I first saw that image of Mars’ surface, I thought it was a tattoo!
December 15th, 2009 at 12:22 pm
[...] Top Ten de las imágenes de astronomía del 2009 según BadAstromy [...]
December 15th, 2009 at 12:26 pm
Pandora’s galaxy looks just immense – something James Cameron would be proud of !
December 15th, 2009 at 12:39 pm
I have an idea Phil. Perhaps next year, in addition to your top 10 pictures, each of us can submit a picture that we feel is left out. It would be like a supplemental to the top 10 list. You can filter out the people who post similar pictures. Perhaps, it can be a special link that Discover can set up; considering that you have power and influence over the Hive Overmind, it’s certainly possible.
December 15th, 2009 at 12:41 pm
Can’t… Quite… Reach…
December 15th, 2009 at 12:44 pm
[...] Discover December 15, 2009 | No Comments [...]
December 15th, 2009 at 1:02 pm
Whoa. #9 has a bonus feature – it moves.
December 15th, 2009 at 1:08 pm
Cosmic Sausage would make a great band name.
Anyways, really amazing image.
December 15th, 2009 at 1:11 pm
[...] pictures continue – http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2009/12/15/top-ten-astronomy-pictures-of-2009/2/ Leave a [...]
December 15th, 2009 at 1:45 pm
On Number 6, you can easily see it’s the hand of Adonais. That is, if you squint your eyes to turn that orange sausage into the USS Enterprise.
December 15th, 2009 at 2:07 pm
7 could be the death star!
December 15th, 2009 at 2:08 pm
I was sure, Saturn’s equinox and the shadows across the rings of the small perturbations would be included in the list. Well, I was wrong.
Still: Nice choices! Thanks a lot, Phil. This is a year-review I always enjoy (not those horrible TV shows…)
December 15th, 2009 at 2:09 pm
[...] This is pretty awesome stuff- the top ten astronomy pictures of the year. [...]
December 15th, 2009 at 2:27 pm
I’m amazed this image didn’t make it into the Top 10…
After all, it’s a transit of two human spacecraft across the face of a star and a pretty spectacular shot at that. I understand why Apollo 11 would be number one and completely agree with that, but this should be at least #3…
December 15th, 2009 at 2:40 pm
I agree with #1 for sure.
The giant blue ‘hand’ made me think of one character in particular. Doctor Manhattan anyone?
December 15th, 2009 at 2:56 pm
When the sun goes and the nebula forms, what happens to outer planets…what will happen to Neptune, etc. Will they be reached by the blast, ripped up…or will they drift off afterwards or float around in the nebula?
December 15th, 2009 at 3:34 pm
[...] Moon-Landing Conspiracy Theory Smack-down Award: LRO Apollo 11 Landing Site Photo [...]
December 15th, 2009 at 3:37 pm
[...] Top 10 Astronomy Pictures of 2009 [...]
December 15th, 2009 at 3:52 pm
[...] Plait ha publicado hoy su habitual selección de las mejores imágenes de astronomía del año en Top Ten Astronomy Pictures of 2009. Para mi, la más bonita es la octava, que además ya salió por aquí en su momento, aunque estoy [...]
December 15th, 2009 at 4:01 pm
[...] Plait ha publicado hoy su habitual selección de las mejores imágenes de astronomía del año en Top Ten Astronomy Pictures of 2009. Para mi, la más bonita es la octava, que además ya salió por aquí en su momento, aunque estoy [...]
December 15th, 2009 at 4:23 pm
Number three is really pretty. I’d love to go there one day.
And I still maintain that number six is Master Hand reaching for the Brawlers, being controlled by Tabuu *grin* (And if you have no idea what I’m talking about, get thee to a Wii!)
December 15th, 2009 at 4:33 pm
[...] Top Ten Astronomy Pictures of 2009 – “I don’t pick all these images for their sheer beauty; I consider what they mean, what we’ve learned from them, and their impact as well. But have no doubts that they are all magnificent examples of the intersection of art and science…” [...]
December 15th, 2009 at 4:40 pm
[...] Plait ha publicado hoy su habitual selección de las mejores imágenes de astronomía del año en Top Ten Astronomy Pictures of 2009. Para mi, la más bonita es la octava, que además ya salió por aquí en su momento, aunque estoy [...]
December 15th, 2009 at 4:40 pm
[...] http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2009/12/15/top-ten-astronomy-pictures-of-2009/Phil Plait has joined the usual “top ten” listing that is expected at this time of year. Still it is worth a few minutes of one’s time to take a look. [...]
December 15th, 2009 at 4:45 pm
[...] Plait ha publicado hoy su habitual selección de las mejores imágenes de astronomía del año en Top Ten Astronomy Pictures of 2009. Para mi, la más bonita es la octava, que además ya salió por aquí en su momento, aunque estoy [...]
December 15th, 2009 at 6:12 pm
Wow! This is early – the year still has a few weeks to run – I was kinda expecting these in January 2010! New Years day maybe?
But I’m not complaining – I love this yearly tradition of yours and the images are always breath-taking!
Thankyou Bad Astronomer, Dr Phil Plait, sir. I love these!
December 15th, 2009 at 6:33 pm
@ 48. Lewis Says:
I agree with #1 for sure.
The giant blue ‘hand’ made me think of one character in particular. Doctor Manhattan anyone?
No, Londo Mollari actually from Babylon 5. Plus the Vorlons and Shadows.
“… A great hand reaching out from the stars..”
I am surprised by the absence of the Milky Way’s core (composite Chandra HST & UVE) & the Hubble Deep Field. I felt sure they’d be in there & the shuttle-ISS as human sunspots one too.
Still love them though – maybe you should expand it to atop 20? Or top 40 even? Its not like there’s a shortage of candidates!
THanks BA.
December 15th, 2009 at 6:43 pm
There you go again. Do you know how many people you annoyed in the past year alone by not posting astronomy topics? Then you go and do this. You CAN’T call this blog ‘Bad Astronomy’!! I demand the name be changed to ‘OH WOW! Is that ever neat Astronomy…’
Stay warm!
December 15th, 2009 at 6:44 pm
#2 was surely the work of the Intelligent Designer!
December 15th, 2009 at 6:51 pm
[...] But I love this picture not just because of that, but also because of the huge number of far more distant galaxies you can see littering the background. Most of them are hundreds of millions of light years away and more, but the illusion of them bursting out of NGC 4522 is fairly strong. Galaxies don’t actually do that, of course, but I rather like the poetic image of babies erupting out of the galaxy like dandelion seeds on the intergalactic wind. via blogs.discovermagazine.com [...]
December 15th, 2009 at 6:52 pm
[...] Plait over at the Bad Astronomy website has completed choosing his top 10 astronomy pictures for 2009. What’s nice is there’s a beefy explanation under each photo so you get to understand [...]
December 15th, 2009 at 7:59 pm
[...] In the spirit of astronomy Discover Magazine has posted the top ten astronomy pictures of 2009. Below are my favorite (2) pictures of the list. You can read the entire article and check out all ten photos at Discover Magazine. [...]
December 15th, 2009 at 9:03 pm
[...] Top Ten Astronomy Photos of 2009! [...]
December 15th, 2009 at 9:11 pm
For # 9 – ‘A Computer’s Spot in the Sun’:
Dark blemishes on the Sun have been known since antiquity; when the setting Sun’s disk is dimmed by dust in the air, you can sometimes see sunspots against its reddened face. Those are monster spots, and very rare, but even the normal run-of-the-mill sunspots aren’t well understood.
As I understand it, Galileo Galilei was the first to see sunspots back in 1609 and before that it was wrongly believed the Sun was flawless and “unblemished” by any markings.
Given 2009 is the International Year of Astronomy in commemoration of Galileo’s remarkable first year of telescopic observations I would’ve thought the BA would have been a bit more aware and mentioned this fact rather than erroneously claiming we always knew of them.
Basic history of science FAIL there – bad Bad Astronomer!
True, monster sun spots have been recorded visually but I’m pretty sure those observations were made after Galileo & so not in “antiquity” – unless the Renaissance or seventeenth century counts as “antiquity”!
Also ‘A computers spot in the Sun’? A computer inside the Sun would vapourise in a nano-second. Poor choice of words there BA. You mean, I’d think, ‘A Computerised Sunspot’ or ‘A computer spots like the Sun’ maybe?
I must confess I’m a little disappointed by some of your choices here, BA – the impact on Jupiter (how *could* you have left that one out?), the Hubble Deep Field, more galaxies, the ISS and shuttle captured transiting the Sun and a few more of Saturn would have my preferred pictures. As well that composite image our Galactic centre, some of the dramatic meteorites we’ve had and the Norweigan rocket spiral would all have been on my list instead – although I guess the latter may not strictly count as astronomical. Your blog and thus your choice but I am feeling a bit puzzled & let down to be perfectly honest.
However, having the Moon landing site photographed from Lunar orbit as this year’s no. 1 – now that I do agree with!
December 15th, 2009 at 9:15 pm
thanks, mister Plait!
if you haven’t seen vista pictures yet, i think it is time to take a look there
the pics are just…amazing
http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso0949/
December 15th, 2009 at 9:17 pm
[...] my favorite astronomer, Phil Plait, has put up his ten favorite astronomy photos of 2009. He says that it is always hard narrowing it down to just ten photos, but I imagine that it was [...]
December 15th, 2009 at 9:28 pm
Amazing selection Phil. Looking forward to what 2010 will show us.
December 15th, 2009 at 9:57 pm
@ spectroscope:
I may be wrong (there’s always a first), but I believe sunspots were observed many centuries before Galileo screwed up his eyes by pointing his optik tube at them.
I think there are references to sunspots in seriously ancient Chinese records (ca. 1st century CE), and a European monk or two made note of them in the middle ages.
December 15th, 2009 at 10:25 pm
RE: Sunspots.
Extract from Wikipedia — Sunspot (History):
December 15th, 2009 at 10:51 pm
That looks a bit like a tattoo on someone’s bottom
December 16th, 2009 at 12:32 am
I saw it when you first posted it, and I’ve seen it many times after, but I still get really close to tears whenever I see the pictures showing our first steps onto another world. I just looked again for the second time tonight, and I was still just as moved by that image. I also love your line, as much as it has been said in some form or another, about a clear demarcation in human history.
Just wow, and thanks.
Autumn
December 16th, 2009 at 2:34 am
I think #6 looks more like a hand grabbing at a banana, thus proving Ray Comfort is correct in whatever it is he’s claiming. I love #1 and had a feeling you’d use it or another like it as the #1 pic of the year.
Yes, I was joking with that first part
December 16th, 2009 at 4:25 am
Hi Phil, thanks for a nice collection of images. For me, though the Hubble IRDF was a special picture, it’s not a ‘good’ picture. You have to know what you’re looking at to get the awe from it. The “tattoo” ones of Mars, when I had that as my desktop thanks to your headsup I think half the people who went past my desk liked the pic.
I must confess to some dismay at none of Cassini’s lovely pictures of Saturn, but hey.
The only one I disagreed with was the sunspot one, on some logical level my mind revolts at an “artist’s representation” being an “astronomy pic” but I get the significance of it. Either way, thanks for the pics! The pictures you’ve chosen, and the detail and enthusiasm with which you present them to us is fantastic. I enjoy the way you wrote up the moon landing.
December 16th, 2009 at 4:28 am
[...] Top Ten Astronomy Pictures of 2009. Some absolutely stunning pictures in there. [...]
December 16th, 2009 at 4:37 am
Totally agree with you phil! There’s one thing I still feel confident to predict: #1 2008 will not be beaten anytime soon!
December 16th, 2009 at 4:43 am
“Amaizing Perfection”. It was all so beautiful…Enough said for us who were around for the start of the space race and remember Apollo 11 like it was yesterday….AND all this we are viewing, will it be some type of reward to play about once we’re gone? The young and upcoming to toy with in reality I bid good luck & give you my blessings, while I continue my mortal voyage & reach the apex to the ultimate question we all await inside in shear terror…..maybe it won’t be so terrifying afterall…….cek
December 16th, 2009 at 5:11 am
Mike (49) said:
Good questions!
If only some astronomer would write a book about things like that, then we could have the answers at our fingertips…
December 16th, 2009 at 5:18 am
Spectroscope (67) said:
Yeah, but “in the sun” also has the figurative meaning of “in the sunshine”. Have you never heard of people holidaying “in the sun”?
Thus, Phil’s title takes on what I assume is an intended double meaning.
December 16th, 2009 at 6:49 am
It’s too bad this jaw-dropper missed out:
http://gizmodo.com/5427429/unbelievable-hubble-shot-captures-the-biggest-star-nursery-nearby
December 16th, 2009 at 7:04 am
Phil,
There’s some confusion of terms in the text accompanying a few of these images.
#9 Magnetic fields don’t have that sort of effect on neutral gas but they will collimate a plasma. So the description of the sunspot needs amending. The “hot solar gas” in question is a charged plasma and it’s not looping back to the Sun’s surface because it cools but because it follows the magnetic field. It’s also worth noting that because the charged particles in the plasma are moving they’re also generating further magnetic fields.
#6 There is no such thing as a magnetic wind. There are winds which comprise neutral gases or there are electrical currents which contain charged particles and their associated magnetic fields.
#4 Gas doesn’t glow until you ionise it and then it becomes a plasma even if a tiny percentage of its constituent atoms/molecules are ionised. It’s interesting to note that the electromagnetic force is a 10^36 times stronger than gravity so there might be something a bit more significant than gusts of wind in shaping this phenomenon.
December 16th, 2009 at 7:05 am
[...] Top 10 Astronomy Pictures of 2009 — Bad Astronomy with some awesomeness. [...]
December 16th, 2009 at 7:44 am
[...] is nummer zes van de tien favorieten van Phil Plait, de man achter de populaire blog Bad [...]
December 16th, 2009 at 9:05 am
[...] Discover o atopadoarte ciencia cine curiosidades diseño entretemento fedellando na rede fotografía [...]
December 16th, 2009 at 9:11 am
[...] There are amazing pictures of sun spots, the Earth and more. It is from Discover Magazine so rather than steal their thunder let me just point you in the right direction. It is work a LOOK. [...]
December 16th, 2009 at 10:01 am
[...] think about something else. How about the “Top Ten Astronomy Pictures of 2009″ from Bad Astronomy. This is my favorite, the skies over Rapa Nui (Easter Island) as a moai statue [...]
December 16th, 2009 at 10:28 am
Great shots brought to us by superior technology and the spirit of man. The amateur shots I saw at The Royal Observatory, Greenwich, London, amply demonstrated that high quality photography is now in the hands of the masses. We reach out, we share, we learn.
December 16th, 2009 at 2:04 pm
I was stuck, amongst all these wondeful pictures, by #3, which shows a rainbow. It’s the arc to the left of the monolith and to my eyes clearly seperates the red, yellow and blue hues. Off hand, I cannot think of another rainbow picture photographed at night, and I wonder what the light source was?
December 16th, 2009 at 2:14 pm
[...] Bad Astronomer, Phil Plait, has posted what he regards as the best ten astronomy photos of the year. There are some lovely images, with my favourite being the Butterfly [...]
December 16th, 2009 at 6:30 pm
@ 71 Kuhnigget & 72 IVAN3MAN :
Okay, you’re right. Some obscure Chinese astronomers and a monk or two saw & recorded sunspots earlier than Galileo without knowing what they really were. As later on & with more knowledge did Galileo’s contemporaries, the two Fabricus’es, Harriott & Scheiner. Thanks for that extra info quoted there I didn’t know or remember all of that.
However, it is still true that Galileo was first to correctly understand and publicise them which is significant and could have been mentioned. It is also true that most people before Galileo thought of the Sun as flawless and without blemish and Galileo’s overturning of this belief – aided & complemented by the likes of Thomas Harriot, Christoph Scheiner and Johannes & David Fabricius, – was a major event and paradigm shift in our understanding.
I still think the BA could have mentioned Galileo’s role there in doing that esp. given the reason why 2009 is the IYA. The good Doctor Plait could also have mentioned the earlier observations briefly too – a line like :
“Although earlier observations of sunspots had been made incl. some back in ancient China and medevial monastries, Galileo was among the first and the best known astronomer to draw attention to sunspots and overthrow the Ptolemaic, church sanctioned mindset that held the Sun to be perfect and unspotted. This is one of the reasons’s why this year has been designated the IYA in his honour.”
Would have been nice.
It’s certainly true that Thomas Harriott, for one, has been unfairly overshadowed by Galileo’s brilliance but then we all know the high personal price Galileo paid for his prominence.
@ 81. Nigel Depledge Says:
… Yeah, but “in the sun” also has the figurative meaning of “in the sunshine”. Have you never heard of people holidaying “in the sun”? Thus, Phil’s title takes on what I assume is an intended double meaning.
“In the sunshine” has a slightly different sense because we’re talkingabout sunlight as oppsoed to shade which make sense. But “holidaying in the Sun” has always struck me as a really dumb saying. I know its metaphorical but still. Call me a pedant if you like but I kind of like accuracy in language.
@ 90 Paul Newman Says:
… Off hand, I cannot think of another rainbow picture photographed at night, and I wonder what the light source was?
The Moon as the BA mentioned in the accompanying text. Moonbows are rare but do occur and have occassionally been photographed before.
December 16th, 2009 at 6:53 pm
These are all incredible images (Of the ones you chose Enceladus is my favourite), but I think you forgot about Fomalhaut b! Hubble saw an extrasolar planet!
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2008/11/13/huge-exoplanet-news-items-pictures/
Edit: My bad, that was 2008
December 16th, 2009 at 8:37 pm
@ Spectroscope:
Call me a pedant if you like
Pedant.
December 17th, 2009 at 7:08 am
@ 10. Phil Plait Says:
scibuff (#9): that one was in my list of choices, but I simply couldn’t fit them all in. RBH (#5): I liked that one too, but I liked the NGC 4522 one I posted better, and it has lots of little galaxies too. I try not to have the pix overlap in content too much, which is one reason the choice is so hard every year. I may yet collect the ones I didn’t post and make a second entry for them.
Please do that! Please!
I’d love to see more of these. I’ve been looking forward to this post all year and ten just isn’t enough!
@ 93 John V : Indeed – but also don’t forget about the less memorably named and less bright (although still visible with unaided eyesight) HR 8799 which had its trio of exoplanets imaged on the same day as Fomalhaut’s.
Click on :
http://stars.astro.illinois.edu/sow/hr8799.html
fo0r more incl. a good finder chart photomap.
Perhaps we should grant HR8799 a proper name too rather than the current merely numerical deisgnation?
I’d suggest “Gadolabove” signifying this individual star being a unique combination of Gamma Doradus variable, Lambda Bootis metal poor star and Vega-style dusty protoplanetary disk star … But that’s just me!
PS. Its okay by me John V – Fomalhaut b was if I recall announced right at the end of the year anyhow. Besides Flying Sphaghetti Monster knows I’m as fallible as anyone else maybe even more so!
December 17th, 2009 at 7:43 am
Of course other groups have posted their own favorites.
From The Crew Earth Observations Team some ISS photos:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition17/earthday_imgs.html
December 18th, 2009 at 1:10 am
[...] Continuing on with the theme of this post, here are Discover Magazine’s Top 10 Astronomy Photos of 2009. [...]
December 18th, 2009 at 2:45 am
[...] http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2009/12/15/top-ten-astronomy-pictures-of-2009/2/ [...]
December 18th, 2009 at 7:58 am
[...] Bad Astronomy’s Phil Plait chose this image of the Mars atmosphere as his second best for the year (enjoying only a Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter image of the Apollo 11 landing site more) and described it as follows: The image above shows a region of Mars near its mid-lower northern latitudes. It’s a close-up of the bed of a crater, and you can see the ripples of sand dunes, endemic on the Martian surface. The sand is similar to beach sand here on Earth, but is dark in color because it’s made of basalt, a greyish rock. Then why is Mars so red? It’s because of much finer-grain dust, which is reddish in hue. The dust lies on top of the sand, making everything look red. [...]
December 18th, 2009 at 12:52 pm
[...] photography I have FINALLY gotten around to posting the top ten astronomy photos as voted by blog Bad Astronomy: #9: "A Computer’s Spot in the Sun" Credit: Matthias Rempel, NCAR Every year, this gets [...]
December 18th, 2009 at 1:15 pm
[...] (vía Top Ten Astronomy Pictures of 2009 | Bad Astronomy | Discover Magazine) [...]
December 18th, 2009 at 9:15 pm
[...] Top 10 Astronomy photos of the year: here. [...]
December 18th, 2009 at 11:30 pm
[...] det något bättre sätt att avsluta astronomiåret 2009 än med ett lista över årets 10 främsta rymdbilder? Det tyckte i alla fall inte astronomen Phil Plait, som publicerat listan på sin blogg. [...]
December 19th, 2009 at 8:58 am
[...] December 19, 2009 Top Ten Astronomy Pictures of 2009 | Bad Astronomy | Discover Magazine Posted by elfgirl under Uncategorized Leave a Comment via blogs.discovermagazine.com [...]
December 19th, 2009 at 7:45 pm
[...] were often streaky; this was my brain’s conflation of two things it had IRL read about in this article: computer simulations of sunspot mechanics and dust devil streaks on the surface of Mars. This [...]
December 20th, 2009 at 4:31 am
[...] Top Ten Astronomy Pictures of 2009 [...]
December 20th, 2009 at 8:18 pm
[...] in a galaxy not so far away, scientists were taking photos of astronomical bodies and events. Phil, from Bad Astronomy, picked his top ten favorites from 2009. They’re damn cool too. [...]
December 21st, 2009 at 8:43 am
[...] Top 10 astronomy pictures of 2009! [...]
December 21st, 2009 at 9:04 am
This blog entry made it on a romanian television
http://www.realitatea.net/cele-mai-spectaculoase-fotografii-astronomice-din-2009_692579.html
December 21st, 2009 at 2:52 pm
[...] Top Ten Astronomy Pictures of 2009 [...]
December 21st, 2009 at 9:01 pm
[...] Top Ten Astronomy Pictures of 2009 [...]
December 21st, 2009 at 9:45 pm
FYI:
============
December 1, 2009
Hubble Space Telescope Advent Calendar 2009
Once more, we enter the month of December and the traditional western Holiday Season, and once again, I’d like to present a Hubble Space Telescope imagery Advent Calendar for 2009. Keep checking this page, because every day, for the next 25 days, a new photo will be revealed here from the Hubble Space Telescope, some old and some new. I have felt extremely fortunate to have been able to share photographs and stories with you all this year, and I wish for a Happy Holiday to all those who will celebrate, and for Peace on Earth to everyone. – Alan (25 photos total – eventually) [previously: the 2008 calendar]
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/12/hubble_space_telescope_advent_1.html
December 22nd, 2009 at 4:25 pm
Water on MARS !!!
December 22nd, 2009 at 5:20 pm
[...] Top Ten Astronomy Pictures of 2009… [...]
December 23rd, 2009 at 11:28 am
[...] Astronomy – “Top Ten Astronomy Pictures of 2009“ [...]
December 30th, 2009 at 5:20 am
[...] A rather different type of best-of: Discover Mag’s fabulous list of top ten astronomy pictures of the [...]
December 30th, 2009 at 1:43 pm
[...] vom ORF, Astro Bob, Spektrum, Nat’l Geogr., Cosmic Log, Science News, Space.com (mehr), Bad Astronomy, Voice of America, Fox News (Kommentar) und NASA, zur Physik von Physics World (mehr) und zur [...]
December 31st, 2009 at 6:08 am
[...] Phil Plait’s Top 10 Astronomy Pictures of 2009 [...]
January 1st, 2010 at 9:19 am
[...] Top 10 Astronomy Photos Discover [...]
January 6th, 2010 at 7:05 pm
[...] The best photos in the universe [...]
January 7th, 2010 at 10:13 am
i watched the July 1969 lunar landing with my grandmother, who was bedridden, and who would die later that year. she was 74 at the time, and while we were watching men land and, then walk, on the Moon, she told me about the first car that had come through our town in 1899. that’s the year her grandfather died, and being a prominent local man, had quite a funeral. they weren’t expecting out of town visitors to appear in a horseless carriage though. she was only 4, but apparently the entire funeral was disrupted with everyone mesmerized by this vehicle. can you imagine, in one’s lifetime, seeing a car for the first time, and living to see a man on the Moon? her sense of wonderment and amazement has never left me.
January 7th, 2010 at 11:53 pm
[...] that time! Top 10 astronomy photos of 2009… …astronomy is so visually appealing as well! Colorful stars, wispy, ethereal nebulae, galactic [...]
January 10th, 2010 at 6:40 am
[...] It’s that time! Top 10 astronomy photos of 2009… [...]
January 23rd, 2010 at 3:41 am
[...] NASA/JPL/U of Arizona) Kretsande kring Mars finns NASA-sonden MRO som tagit några av de mest spektakulära bilderna från vår röda granne. Senast, till exempel, otroliga sandmönster som påminner om [...]
February 4th, 2010 at 8:16 pm
[...] selected and notated. Click here for the complete story. [...]
May 1st, 2010 at 11:26 am
[...] Top Ten Astronomy Pictures of 2009 – If your eyes aren’t burnt out from the hottest women list above, Discover has some images that are even more amazing. [...]
June 9th, 2010 at 3:27 pm
Noticed that at the end you took the chance there to slide in your own idiosyncratic views about the future of manned space flight. Very subtle…
August 7th, 2010 at 7:04 pm
The Hubble telescope did good after all it been punched a lot of holes from light speed traveling dust.