Listed below are Top 5 of the most interesting pictures I have personally handpicked from the 2010 archive*.  If you follow the link provided, it will take you to the official site, which includes a NASA explanation of what is happening in the picture.  I also provide a short summary of my own reasons why I think the picture is special.  I will be doing a “Part 2” follow up at the end of 2010 with another top 5 pictures, which will round-up the Top 10 of 2010, NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day.

5. Andromeda Island Universe - 2010 January 9

One of the most famous and studied galaxies in history, the Andromeda Galaxy offers a glimpse into how our own Milky Way Galaxy may look if we were to see it from an external point of view. It’s the closest spiral galaxy to our own galaxy, and is approximately 2.5 million light-years away.  Imagine that you point a laser light beam, and knowing the speed of light (299,792,458 m/s or 1,079,252,848.8 km/hr), which covers more than one billion km/hr, it would still take the laser 2.5 million years to reach Andromeda. Truly astronomical distances! Another mind bending implication of light traveling from a galaxy 2.5 million light-years away, is that the actual light we are seeing through our telescopes is 2.5 million years old as it takes so long for the light waves to reach earth. We are actually seeing the galaxy as it looked 2.5 million years ago, it’s like looking back into history in real-time.
NASA Explanation

4. Dark Shuttle Approaching – 2010 February 1

At first glance this may look like a rare Pink Floyd album cover, but it actually is the Space Shuttle Endeavour in orbit around earth, taken by crew from inside the International Space Station.  What makes this picture superb, are the several visible layers of the earth’s atmosphere, each with it’s own color.  The earth is the entire left-hand side of the photograph, currently in darkness.  The orange layer is the troposphere where clouds are formed and daily weather patterns are observed. The stratosphere appears white and is where temperatures rise with altitude caused by heating of the upper ozone layer; and in the lower layers commercial jets fly above the troposphere where air is cooler and jet burn is maximized.  The blue hue behind and above the shuttle is the mesosphere, and here is where most meteorites “burn-up” in the earth’s atmosphere.  If interested, you can always learn more about each layer.

In the photograph we see the atmospheric transition that each rocket launched from earth must go through in order to reach earth orbit altitude or beyond. The dark silhouette of the shuttle against the colors of the atmosphere symbolizes humanity’s quest for technological breakthroughs that allow us to observe the earth and universe in new astonishing ways.  The encompassing “darkness” in the photo can be a metaphor to the great intellectual and spiritual unknowns we are seeking to illuminate, both on earth and in the heavens. The metaphorical darkness holds clues to how the universe was created, whether there exist other intelligent conscious beings, and in my view, insight into our own symbiotic relationship to the earth.
NASA Explanation

3. A Roll Cloud Over Uruguay, Las Olas Beach in Maldonado – 2010 January 5

The earth’s troposphere is a very eventful place, and on some rare occasions when the weather conditions are just right, interesting cloud formations occur.  This incredible photograph documents the unusual roll cloud advancing towards the photographer, as it blocks out the blue skies with a low-pressure cold front.  Cool air downdrafts force warmer humid air to rise and cool below their dew point, hence creating Arcus clouds, or roll clouds.  Observing these cloud phenomena is an excellent way to understand how low and high pressure weather fronts interact with each other in the troposphere, especially when one sees how large these systems can be, spanning for hundreds of kilometres in the sky.

You can see more pictures of Roll cloud over ocean and  Three consecutive roll clouds, amazing!
NASA Explanation

2. Ash and Lightning Above an Icelandic Volcano - 2010 April 19

A spectacular photograph of lightning during the volcanic explosion in Iceland, displays powerful forces at work during the eruption. A study in the journal Science indicated that electrical charges are generated when rock fragments, ash, and ice particles in a volcanic plume collide and produce static charges, just as ice particles collide in regular thunderstorms. Volcanic eruptions also release large amounts of water, which may help fuel these thunderstorms. See another famous photograph of a “dirty thunderstorm” and learn more here.
NASA Explanation

1. NGC 602 and Beyond - 2010 April 3

With the help of super powerful telescopes, we have a window to the beautiful universal landscape surrounding the earth in every direction. A truly stunning picture taken by the Hubble Telescope, it is a portrait of how some stars are created in our universe.  Stars in these “clusters” are born out of vast clouds of moving gas and dust, which in the presence of gravitational forces create groups of new stars.  The space matter is easily seen being formed in the shape of enormous “pillars”, which surround the newly created stars groups in the centre.  Also notice the hundreds of various spiral galaxies seen dotting the photograph beyond the star cluster, further inspiring the human imagination to keep exploring the night time skies and the universe. This is my choice for the number 1 NASA picture of 2010, Part 1 of this series.
NASA Explanation

I hope you enjoyed looking at the pictures and learning new things about the world around you.  Look forward to Part 2 coming at the end of 2010.

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Source

1. Large Magellanic cloud

It is the shiniest among the top ten brightest galaxies in universe as seen from the earth. Large Magellanic cloud, not so surprisingly is also the closest one to planet earth. At a distance of 170,000 light years away from the earth, Large Magellanic is only a satellite galaxy of our own Milky Way at size of about one tenth of the our galaxy.

2. Small Magellanic Cloud

Scientist call Small Magellanic Cloud a dwarf galaxy with about several million stars compared to Milky Way’s 200-300 billion stars. Small magellanic Cloud (SMC) has diameter of only 7,000 light years and holds several hundred million stars. Small Magellanic galaxy is 210,000 light years away and has the most distant planets or stars that can be seen with the naked eye.

3. Andromeda Galaxy 2.6 4.36

At approximately 2.6 million light years away, the spiral galaxy of Andromeda is found within the constellation of Andromeda. The great Andromeda Nebula is the largest spiral galaxy to our own milky way. The name is derived from princess Andromeda having Greek mythological sources. This bright galaxy is estimated to be 1.2 times the size of the Milky Way.

4. Triangulum Galaxy

Triangulum Galazy, like Andromeda, is a spiral galaxy which lives at approximately 2.8 million light years from the earth. Triangulum Galaxy with a diameter of 50,000 light years stands as the fourth brightest galaxy observed from the earth.

5. Centaurus Galaxy

Centaurus is around 11 to 12 million light years away from us. As the fifth brightest galaxy, Centaururs is only visible from low northern latitudes and the southern hemisphere. This galaxy is believed to have x-ray and radio wavelength emissions from its core, which scientist say are being emitted from its jet emiited particles which are astonishingly moving at about one half of the speed of light.

6. Bode’s Galaxy

Bode’s Galaxy also known as Messier 81 is a spiral galaxy like that of Triangulum and Andromeda. The sixth of the top ten brightest galaxies is also around 12 million light years away from the earth. This galaxy was discovered by Johann Elert Bode in 1774 and is thought to have a massive black hole and low apparent magnitude, which translates directly to more brightness; a popular point of observation for armature astronomers.

7. Silver Coin Galaxy

Labelled as an intermediate spiral galaxy, Silver Coin Galaxy standing from a distance of around 8.5 million light years forms the one of the brightest galaxy seen from the earth. This galaxy is also fitted in the group of Sturbust galaxy meaning that it is currently going through a period of intense star formation.

8. Southern Pinwheel Galaxy

Southern Pinwheel Galaxy, also known as Messier 83 is another intermediate spiral galaxy after Silver Coin, which is approximately 15 million light years away from our tiny planet.

9. Pinwheel Galaxy

After Southern Pinwheel Galaxy comes Pinwheel Galaxy herself. Unlike the number 8, Pinwheel is a spiral galaxy and nearly 23 million light years away and is contained within the Ursa Major constellation. As one of the top brightest galaxy, Pinwheel is relatively larger than our Milky way; it consists of a 170,000 light year diameter.

10. Cigar Galaxy

Number 10 brightest galaxy in our top ten list is Cigar Galaxy or Messier 82. It is nearly 4.9 million light years away but is thought be as much as five times brighter than the Milky Way. Cigar Galaxy is producing young starts at a rate of 10 times faster than the centre of our own Milky Way.

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• The Galactic Alignment
• Approaching Planet X

The Galactic alignment and the approaching “Planet X” (or Nibiru) are the two main theories that are being blamed for the much talked about cataclysmic effects of  dooms day or end of the world, as we know it.

These two doomsday theories are widely based on the indications of the Mayan calendar, which has “predicted” a galactic season to roll over to a new era on December 21, 2012.

Full Mayan Calendar

2.  What is proven to happen from 2012 theory?

Similar to how the movement of the earth around the sun causes many different seasonal affects, which we call summer or winter, the galactic movement of the sun around its galaxy will affect the earth in a more intense fashion for longer periods of time.

Although such galactic changes may or may not happen in 2012, it is scientifically proven that they will take place at some point in the future.

3.  What is the Mayan calendar?

December 21 for the ancient Mayans marked a huge celebration period that recognized the end of a whole calendar cycle. This calendar was not only based on the solar system (movement of the earth around the sun) or the lunar system (movement of the moon around the earth) but astonishingly it was based on a whole galactic system movement, comprising of movement of the moon around the earth, the earth around the sun, as well as our sun around it’s galaxy.

4.  What is a galactic system and how does it work?

Just as the earth moves around the sun – identical to many other solar systems – our sun itself is in constant circulation around the black hole of its (our) galaxy. Most people are quite surprised to find out that the sun is moving at a speed of nearly 1,000,000 km every hour and is constantly accelerating. So with its massive gravitational force the sun is also pulling the earth and rest of our neighbouring planets along with it.

5.  Did the Mayans get it right?

The Mayans with their incredible knowledge of astronomy were able to predict the movements of the moon around the earth, the movements of the earth around the sun and amazingly the movement of the sun (hence our solar system) around the Milky Way galaxy. And as far as we can prove, they did this flawlessly.

6.  Why should we believe in the Mayan calendar?

The Mayan years were so accurate that it eliminated the need for Leap years, something today’s calendars cannot avoid. These ancient people who lived (as far as archaeologists can trace back) nearly 5000 to 7000 years ago kept their solar calendar years to exactly 365.25 days.

The Maya were not just astronomers, but sophisticated astronomers; people in the pre-Classic period whose daily work revolved on their observation of the skies and stars. As a matter of fact, they appear to be the only pre-telescopic civilization to demonstrate knowledge of the Orion Nebula.

The Mayan calendar predicts that the sun will finish its one complete rotation around the Milky Way galaxy, hence rolling over to a new galactic year. For the humankind on the earth, each galactic year takes approximately 26,000 25 million solar years. At this time the sun will cross exactly through the galaxy’s equinox, which could also be considered as the Galaxy’s “equator”. If this prediction is true then it means that during such special galactic alignment the sun and the earth will be exposed to an increase in the gravitational forces that are triggered from the Milky Way galaxy’s centre, commonly know as the “Black Hole”.

As mentioned before, the reason why the 2012 Mayan calendar is so highly regarded is because it is considered to be even more sophisticated than modern day calendars and it so complicated that we still cannot decipher everything the calendar predicts. It consists of a 365-day agricultural calendar, as well as a 260-day sacred calendar. The people of Maya had measured the length of the solar year to a high degree of accuracy and was perfected to a precision that our own Gregorian calendar lacks.

7.  When exactly did the Mayans predict doomsday?

The ancient people of Maya produced a calendar that predicts the galactic alignment and disruption in the gravitational of force of the earth to be exactly on 12/21/2012 at 11:11 p.m. Universal Time. Although it is commonly believed amongst scientists that such disruptions will not occur rapidly, such date and time may very well be the start of a new Galactic seasons and consequent disruptions.

The Mayan calendar’s solar tracking of the earthly days were extremely accurate, which is why many people believe that their early galactic prediction will also prove to be exact. Although there is no doubt that the solar system will eventually cross through the Milky Way’s equinox, there are many scientists engaged in vigorous debates on whether or not the Mayans were correct about their prediction and whether or not this will prove to cause a polar shift on December 2012; something that remains to be witnessed for accuracy.

8.  What has science proven about the Mayan calendar?

There are many people who are excited about events of 2012 and many that have full doubts. However, scientists have proven that cataclysmic events are destined to take place on earth. However, whether or not the start of a new Mayan year in 2012 is thought to be the start of the cataclysmic disasters is yet to be proven.

9.  What happened to the Mayas?

The Mayas continuously calculated future events through the studying the skies, mostly considerably the Venus cycle, in the observatory named, The Pyramid of Kukulkan. Their work and their living continued until their calendar mysteriously stops on a winter solstices. ( solstice is an astronomical event that happens twice each year, when the tilt of the Earth’s axis is most inclined toward or away from the Sun, causing the Sun’s apparent position in the sky to reach its northernmost or southernmost extreme. – Wikipedia)

Mayan Civilization

The day the Mayan race and their calendar stop is exactly on December 21st, 2012, which is the day winter solstices. Many people who reject the Mayan calendar perdition label this date as being purely coincidental. As a matter of fact, this is exactly what started the whole debate of the 2012 Mayan calendar.

How could a civilization so intelligent, so precise, so devoted, just abruptly stop to exist on a specific day? What is even stranger is the whole civilization seems to have just vanished, with no left behind them.

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