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October 25, 2026

Dark Matter in a Simulated Universe
* Credit & Copyright: Tom Abel & Ralf Kaehler (KIPAC , SLAC), AMNH
https://kipac.stanford.edu/people/tom-abel
https://www.slac.stanford.edu/~kaehler/
https://kipac.stanford.edu/
https://www6.slac.stanford.edu/
https://www.amnh.org/
* Text: Jerry Bonnell

Explanation:
Is our universe haunted? It might look that way on this dark matter map. The gravity of unseen dark matter is the leading explanation for why galaxies rotate so fast, why galaxies orbit clusters so fast, why gravitational lenses so strongly deflect light, and how visible matter is distributed. The featured image from the American Museum of Natural History's Hayden Planetarium Space Show, Dark Universe, highlights one example of how pervasive dark matter might haunt our universe. In this frame from a detailed computer simulation, complex filaments of dark matter, shown in black, are strewn about the universe like spider webs, while the relatively rare clumps of familiar baryonic matter are colored orange. These simulations are good statistical matches to astronomical observations. In what is perhaps a scarier turn of events, dark matter -- although quite strange and in an unknown form -- is no longer thought to be the strangest source of gravity in the universe. That honor now falls to dark energy, a more uniform source of repulsive gravity that seems to now dominate the expansion of the entire universe.

https://science.nasa.gov/image-article/apod-2026-october-25-dark-matter-in-a-simulated-universe/

#space #universe #map #astronomy #astrophotography #photography #science #nature #NASA #ESA #rubin #education #apod

October 25, 2026 
The picture shows a computer simulation of the matter distribution in our universe with dark matter shown in a dark color on a light background. 

Dark Matter in a Simulated Universe
 * Credit & Copyright: Tom Abel & Ralf Kaehler (KIPAC , SLAC), AMNH

Explanation: 
Is our universe haunted? It might look that way on this dark matter map. The gravity of unseen dark matter is the leading explanation for why galaxies rotate so fast, why galaxies orbit clusters so fast, why gravitat
Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (KIPAC)Tom AbelProfessor of Particle Physics and Astrophysics and of Physics
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October 24, 2026

* Credit: ESA/Rosetta/Philae/CIVA
http://rosetta.esa.int/
* Text: Jerry Bonnell

Explanation:
This Rosetta spacecraft selfie was snapped on October 7th, 2014. At the time the comet-chasing spacecraft was about 472 million kilometers from planet Earth, but only 16 kilometers from the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Looming beyond the spacecraft near the top of the frame, dust and gas stream away from the comet's curious double-lobed nucleus. Bright sunlight glints off one of Rosetta's 14 meter long solar arrays. In fact, two exposures, one short and one long, were combined to record the dramatic high contrast scene using the CIVA camera system on Rosetta's still-attached Philae lander. Its chosen primary landing site was on the visible hemisphere of the smaller lobe of the nucleus. This was the last image from Philae's camera before the lander separated from Rosetta on November 12. Shortly after separation Philae took another image looking back toward the orbiter and began its descent to the nucleus of the comet.

https://science.nasa.gov/image-article/apod-2026-october-24-rosettas-selfie/

#space #comets #astrophotography #photography #science #astronomy #nature #NASA #education #apod

October 24, 2026 
Image of a Rosetta spacecraft solar array in foreground and the nucleus of comet 67P in background.

Rosetta's Selfie
 * Credit: ESA/Rosetta/Philae/CIVA 

Explanation: 
This Rosetta spacecraft selfie was snapped on October 7th, 2014. At the time the comet-chasing spacecraft was about 472 million kilometers from planet Earth, but only 16 kilometers from the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Looming beyond the spacecraft near the top of the frame, dust and gas stream aw
NASA ScienceAPOD: 2026 October 24 – Rosetta's Selfie - NASA Science
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October 23, 2026

Andromeda in Southern Spring
* Credit & Copyright: Lucy Yunxi Hu
https://www.astrolucyhu.com/about-lucy
* Text: Jerry Bonnell

Explanation:
Looking toward the north from Mullion, New South Wales, Australia, the Andromeda Galaxy never gets more than a few degrees above the horizon. During the southern hemisphere spring, Andromeda is highest in the sky around midnight though. And in this telephoto scene from October 10/11, multiple exposures were used to reveal the spiral galaxy in tantalizing detail as it climbed above rolling Australian hills. Also known as M31, the Andromeda Galaxy is one of the brightest objects in the Messier catalog, but is only visible to the unaided eye as a small, faint, fuzzy patch. Digitally tracked and stacked frames were combined with a foreground shot in the deep astro-image composite to reveal the galaxy's greater extent in planet Earth's night. In the springtime night skyscape,the closest large spiral galaxy spans nearly 6 full moons.

https://science.nasa.gov/image-article/apod-2026-october-23-andromeda-in-southern-spring/

#space #galaxy #astrophotography #photography #science #astronomy #nature #NASA

October 23, 2026 
The Andromeda galaxy above rolling hills.

Andromeda in Southern Spring
 *  Credit & Copyright: Lucy Yunxi Hu

Explanation: 
Looking toward the north from Mullion, New South Wales, Australia, the Andromeda Galaxy never gets more than a few degrees above the horizon. During the southern hemisphere spring, Andromeda is highest in the sky around midnight though. And in this telephoto scene from October 10/11, multiple exposures were used to reveal the spiral galaxy in tantalizing
MysiteAbout Lucy | AstroLucyHu
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French astronomer Guillaume Le Gentil, who died OTD in 1725, discovered several nebulae; he made unsuccessful attempts to observe the 1761 and 1769 transits of Venus from India https://cromwell-intl.com/travel/france/paris-megaliths/?s=mb #travel #France #astronomy #history

Bob's Pages of Travel, Linux, Cybersecurity, and MoreNeolithic Megaliths in the Suburbs near the Paris ObservatoryVisit megalithic structures near the Paris Observatory in the southern suburbs of the city.
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French astronomer Guillaume Le Gentil, who died OTD in 1792, discovered several nebulae; see the French national observatory outside #Paris near some megalithic structures https://cromwell-intl.com/travel/france/paris-megaliths/?s=mb #travel #France #astronomy

Bob's Pages of Travel, Linux, Cybersecurity, and MoreNeolithic Megaliths in the Suburbs near the Paris ObservatoryVisit megalithic structures near the Paris Observatory in the southern suburbs of the city.
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October 22, 2026

The First Green Star, WD J1330+6435
* Credit & Copyright: Mark A. Garlick/University of Warwick
https://markgarlick.com/
https://warwick.ac.uk/
* Text: Cecilia Chirenti

Explanation:
Star light, star bright: is there a green star out tonight? Other than the Sun, all stars are so far from Earth that they appear as points in the sky. They are mostly white, but sometimes noticeably red or blue. This color typically relates to the temperature: blue stars are hotter than red stars. What about other colors? The featured image is an illustration showing WD J1330+6435, a white dwarf star, surrounded by an accretion disk with gas and rocks orbiting the star. White dwarfs are small, faint stars that are left over when a star like the Sun exhausts its nuclear fuel. Astronomers recently found that some white dwarf stars, despite their name, would appear yellow, green, cyan, pink, or purple. In these cases, trace elements that were accreted to these stars interact with the stellar atmosphere and shift its normally white color. But, alas! I wish I may, I wish I might, but they are too faint to see tonight...

https://science.nasa.gov/image-article/apod-2026-october-22-the-first-green-star-wd-j13306435/

#space #dwarfs #giants #astrophotography #photography #science #astronomy #physics #nature #NASA #ESA #education #apod

October 22, 2026 
A star shines with a greenish hue in front of a dark field with more distant stars, surrounded by a greenish disk with debris.

The First Green Star, WD J1330+6435
 * Credit & Copyright: Mark A. Garlick/University of Warwick

Explanation: 
Star light, star bright: is there a green star out tonight? Other than the Sun, all stars are so far from Earth that they appear as points in the sky. They are mostly white, but sometimes noticeably red or blue. This color typically relates t
MarkGarlick.comHome | MarkGarlick.comOnline gallery of space and astronomical illustration and animation
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Home, a bit sick:

After a random idea at 5am I'm now back on a Egyptian decans project I half abandoned years ago, and now it's finally giving answers. I vibe coded a more rigorous version of a tedious manual approach: fully computed skies for Thebes, Abydos and Memphis, 518 stars, the decan list fitted as one sequence. It low key checks out.

Three decans now stand firm: Sothis is still Sirius, "the red one" is ε Scorpii, and tpy-ꜥ ꜣḫwy is Fomalhaut. Between them runs a road of stars through Hydra, Centaurus and Scorpius to Sagittarius.

#Egyptology #Astronomy #Decans #ADHD

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2014 May 12
Illustris Simulation of the Universe
* Video Credit: Illustris Collaboration, NASA, PRACE, XSEDE, MIT, Harvard CfA;
https://physics.mit.edu/faculty/mark-vogelsberger/
https://www.illustris-project.org/people/
https://prace-ri.eu/
https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/
https://www.xsede.org/
https://www.nasa.gov/
* Music: The Poisoned Princess (Media Right Productions)
https://www.mediarightproductions.com/

Explanation:
How did we get here? Click play, sit back, and watch. A new computer simulation of the evolution of the universe -- the largest and most sophisticated yet produced -- provides new insight into how galaxies formed and new perspectives into humanity's place in the universe. The Illustris project -- the largest of its type yet -- exhausted 20 million CPU hours following 12 billion resolution elements spanning a cube 35 million light years on a side as it evolved over 13 billion years. The simulation is the first to track matter into the formation of a wide variety of galaxy types. As the virtual universe evolves, some of the matter expanding with the universe soon gravitationally condenses to form filaments, galaxies, and clusters of galaxies. The above video takes the perspective of a virtual camera circling part of this changing universe, first showing the evolution of dark matter, then hydrogen gas coded by temperature (0:45), then heavy elements such as helium and carbon (1:30), and then back to dark matter (2:07). On the lower left the time since the Big Bang is listed, while on the lower right the type of matter being shown is listed. Explosions (0:50) depict galaxy-center supermassive black holes expelling bubbles of hot gas. Interesting discrepancies between Illustris and the real universe do exist and are being studied, including why the simulation produces an overabundance of old stars.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap140512.html

* i converted and compressed this video to mp4 -crf 28 with ffmpeg

#space #universe #map #astronomy #astrophotography #photography #science #nature #NASA #ESA #education

MIT PhysicsMark Vogelsberger » MIT PhysicsResearch Interests Professor Vogelsberger is a theoretical astrophysicist whose research interests broadly cover structure and galaxy formation, dark matter physics and large-scale hydrodynamical simulations. He makes extensive use of numerical simulations using state-of-the-art high-performance supercomputers around the world. Cosmology and galaxy formation recently entered their golden age with
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