Perspective

Hitachi Seaside Park, Japan.

Paisagens do Japão, estar aqui é muito bom!!

Heavy Snowfall in Kyoto Turns the City Into a Beautiful Winter Wonderland

This image was taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) and shows a starburst galaxy named MCG+07-33-027. This galaxy lies some 300 million light-years away from us, and is currently experiencing an extraordinarily high rate of star formation — a starburst. 

Normal galaxies produce only a couple of new stars per year, but starburst galaxies can produce a hundred times more than that. As MCG+07-33-027 is seen face-on, the galaxy’s spiral arms and the bright star-forming regions within them are clearly visible and easy for astronomers to study.

In order to form newborn stars, the parent galaxy has to hold a large reservoir of gas, which is slowly depleted to spawn stars over time. For galaxies in a state of starburst, this intense period of star formation has to be triggered somehow — often this happens due to a collision with another galaxy. MCG+07-33-027, however, is special; while many galaxies are located within a large cluster of galaxies, MCG+07-33-027 is a field galaxy, which means it is rather isolated. Thus, the triggering of the starburst was most likely not due to a collision with a neighboring or passing galaxy and astronomers are still speculating about the cause. The bright object to the right of the galaxy is a foreground star in our own galaxy.

Object Names: MCG+07-33-027

Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA and N. Grogin (STScI)

Text credit: European Space Agency

Time And Space

Kyoto e seus encantos.

Classic Kyoto by Peter Stewart

Muito bom!!

Celebrate Today’s Solar Eclipse With NASA

Today, Aug. 21, the Moon’s shadow is sweeping across North America. People across the continent have the chance to see a partial solar eclipse if skies are clear.

For those within the narrow path of totality, stretching from Oregon to South Carolina, that partial eclipse will become total for a few brief moments. 

Make sure you’re using proper solar filters (not sunglasses) or an indirect viewing method if you plan to watch the eclipse in person.

Wherever you are, you can also watch today’s eclipse online with us at nasa.gov/eclipselive. Starting at noon ET, our show will feature views from our research aircraft, high-altitude balloons, satellites and specially-modified telescopes, as well as live reports from cities across the country and the International Space Station.

Learn all about today’s eclipse at eclipse2017.nasa.gov.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com

Lovely!!

Shibori kimono.  Taisho period (1912-1926), Japan.  The Kimono Gallery. A silk shibori kimono featuring large ‘yabane’ (arrow-feather) motifs of shibori with silk and metallic thread embroidery highlights. This kimono is patterned entirely in fine shibori (tie-die). The arrow feather (yabane) motif first became fashionable in Japan as early as the Heian era – initially with martial connotations – and during the Edo era it was often used on kimono for ladies in waiting. The motif was very popular on schoolgirl and teacher kasuri (ikat) kimonos of the mid to late Meiji period. During the Taisho and early Showa periods the yabane was a popular woman’s kimono motif, created via shibori, stenciling, or yuzen-dyeing. The arrow-feather motifs were most often vertical, but sometimes created at an angle, as in this example. The Yabane pattern, like most geometric motifs, is all-season, however, it has an auspicious association with weddings – like an arrow shot from a bow a bride does not return to her parents’ house. This kimono would have been very expensive to create - the shibori work itself would have taken a few months to complete. The white silk embroidery on the two arrow-feather motifs situated on lower left of the kimono is very visible from a distance, and provides a tasteful change from the other plainer motifs. The motifs are randomly scattered throughout the kimono 'canvas’, resulting in a casual relaxed atmosphere. The “speckled” appearance of the yellow background color is an accomplished effect: many thousands of tie-dye knots were once placed here to be able to achieve the slightly puckered yellow dots on black background speckled look.

Meu canto