ASTRONOMIE - Les plus beaux astres de la Voie Lactée - La lune

Cette photographie de la Pleine Lune a été prise le 22 octobre 2010 à Madison, dans l'Alabama (États-Unis).

Superficie de la Lune : 3,79 x 107 km2

© Gregory H. Revera, Wikimedia Commons, CC by-sa 3.0

ASTRONOMY - Eclipse pair

 2025 January 3

Eclipse Pair
Image Credit & Copyright: Josh Dury

Explanation: Eclipses tend to come in pairs. Twice a year, during an eclipse season that lasts about 34 days, Sun, Moon, and Earth can nearly align. Then the full and new phases of the Moon, separated by just over 14 days, create a lunar and a solar eclipse. But only rarely is the alignment at both new moon and full moon phases during a single eclipse season close enough to produce a pair with both total (or a total and an annular) lunar and solar eclipses. More often, partial eclipses are part of any eclipse season. In fact, the last eclipse season of 2024 produced this fortnight-separated eclipse pair: a partial lunar eclipse on 18 September and an annular solar eclipse on 2 October. The time-lapse composite images were captured from Somerset, UK (left) and Rapa Nui planet Earth. The 2025 eclipse seasons will see a total lunar eclipse on 14 March paired with a partial solar eclipse on 29 March, and a total lunar eclipse on 8 September followed by a partial solar eclipse on 21 September.

ASTRONOMIE - Les quatre lunes galiléennes de Jupiter

Publiée en novembre 1997, cette image représente les quatre lunes galiléennes de Jupiter. De haut en bas, on peut apercevoir Io, Europe, Ganymède et Callisto.

© Nasa, JPL, DLR, Wikimedia Commons, DP

ASTRONOMY - Alpha Centauri: The Closest Star System

 2025 January 1

Alpha Centauri: The Closest Star System
Image Credit & Copyright: Telescope Live, Heaven's Mirror Observatory; Processing: Chris Cantrell

Explanation: The closest star system to the Sun is the Alpha Centauri system. Of the three stars in the system, the dimmest -- called Proxima Centauri -- is actually the nearest star. The bright stars Alpha Centauri A and B form a close binary as they are separated by only 23 times the Earth- Sun distance - slightly greater than the distance between Uranus and the Sun. The Alphasystem is not visible in much of the northern hemisphere. Alpha Centauri A, also known as Rigil Kentaurus, is the brightest star in the constellation of Centaurus and is the fourth brightest star in the night sky. Sirius is the brightest even though it is more than twice as far away. By an exciting coincidence, Alpha Centauri A is the same type of star as our Sun, and Proxima Centauri is now known to have a potentially habitable exoplanet.

MUSICA - Verdi - Va pensiero (Riccardo Muti)

"Va pensiero"