the-telescope-times: Naming Features On Pluto And Charon…

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the-telescope-times:

Naming Features On Pluto And Charon

(lower) This image contains the initial, informal names being used by the New Horizons team for the features on Pluto’s Sputnik Planum (plain). Names were selected based on input the team received from a public naming campaign. Names have not yet been approved by the International Astronomical Union (IAU).

Read more ~ Colorado Space News

Image Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute

the-telescope-times: Hubble Provides Interstellar Road Map for…

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the-telescope-times:

Hubble Provides Interstellar Road Map for Voyagers’ Galactic Trek

NASA’s two Voyager spacecraft are hurtling through unexplored territory on their road trip beyond our solar system. Along the way, they are measuring the interstellar medium, the mysterious environment between stars. NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope is providing the road map – by measuring the material along the probes’ future trajectories. Even after the Voyagers run out of electrical power and are unable to send back new data, which may happen in about a decade, astronomers can use Hubble observations to characterize the environment of through which these silent ambassadors will glide.

A preliminary analysis of the Hubble observations reveals a rich, complex interstellar ecology, containing multiple clouds of hydrogen laced with other elements. Hubble data, combined with the Voyagers, have also provided new insights into how our sun travels through interstellar space.

Read more ~ NASA.gov

Image: In this illustration oriented along the ecliptic plane, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope looks along the paths of NASA’s Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft as they journey through the solar system and into interstellar space. Hubble is gazing at two sight lines (the twin cone-shaped features) along each spacecraft’s path. The telescope’s goal is to help astronomers map interstellar structure along each spacecraft’s star-bound route. Each sight line stretches several light-years to nearby stars.
     Credits: NASA, ESA, and Z. Levay (STScI)

frontal-cortex: This digitally-colorized scanning electron…

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frontal-cortex:

This digitally-colorized scanning electron microscopic (SEM) image revealed some of the ultrastructural morphology displayed on the ventral surface of a bedbug, Cimex lectularius. From this view, at the top, you can see the insect’s skin piercing mouthparts it uses to obtain its blood meal, as well as a number of its disarticulated six jointed legs. You’ll also notice a beautiful diaphanous structure at the bottom of the image. It is speculated that this wondrous ultrastructural organ is most probably a scent gland, or related to the dissemination of scent, which may be pheromonal in nature. A further dissection of this, and the adjacent mesothoracic region, could possibly reveal an internalized aspect of this organ, which would be glandular in nature, and actually involved in the production of the aromatic chemical.

Clinical Features: Although bedbugs have been found naturally-infected with blood-borne pathogens, they are not effective vectors of disease. The primary medical importance is inflammation associated with their bites (due to allergic reactions to components in their saliva).

Picture : Janice Haney Carr