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18

How is the Earth changing and what are the consequences for life on Earth? This and related questions prompted the creation of the Earth Observing System (EOS), a multinational research program. On December 18, 1999 NASA launched the Terra satellite, the flagship of EOS.

Terra has several instruments, one of them ASTER which collects data that can create detailed maps of land surface temperature. This image was acquired on October 21, 2017 over the area of northern California that was burning in some of the most destructive fires in California history. [Click to enlarge the picture.] In the image, vegetation is red, while burned areas appear dark gray. The image covers an area of 38 by 39 miles (60.5 by 63 km).

(Image Credit: NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Space Systems,and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team)

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Do other stars have planetary systems similar to ours? Yes – one such system is  Kepler-90. It has the same number of known planets as our Solar System.

Kepler-90's G-type star is comparable to our Sun, there are rocky planets comparable to Earth, and large planets comparable in size to Jupiter and Saturn. However a major difference is that all of the known Kepler-90 planets orbit relatively close in – closer than Earth's orbit around the Sun – making them likely to be too hot to harbor life. Kepler-90 lies about 2,500 light years away, in the constellation Draco (the Dragon).

(Image Credit: NASA Ames, Wendy Stenzel)

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On December 20, 1904 George Ellery Hale founded the Mount Wilson Solar Observatory.

Later the “solar” was dropped when the observatory's 100-inch telescope – the biggest in the world – went into action. Edwin Hubble used the telescope and discovered that our galaxy wasn't alone, and found evidence for an expanding Universe.

In September 2009 the historic research facility was threatened by wildfire when southern California fires were blazing out of control. The picture shows a view of the encroaching fire from the observatory. Fortunately, concerted action by firefighters kept the blaze from engulfing it. There was heat and smoke damage, but it survived intact.

(Image Credit: UCLA Department of Physics and Astronomy)

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21

December 21 is the day of the winter solstice in the northern hemisphere. It's the shortest day, and the Sun reaches its most southerly point on the celestial sphere at 16:28 UTC (11:28 a.m. EST).

If you took a picture of the Sun from the same place and at the same time each day, you wouldn't see the Sun in the same position. The shape traced out by the Sun over a year is called an analemma. Today, in the northern hemisphere, the Sun is at the bottom of the analemma. The analemma in this photo was built up by 46 separate Sun photographs taken during 2003 in Athens, Greece. Pictured in the foreground of the composite image are pillars called the Porch of Maidens, part of the ancient Erechtheum which was completed in 407 BC.

(Image Credit: UCLA Department of Physics and Astronomy
Description based on text by: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP))

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One of the most daring space missions of the new millennium was the Rosetta mission to a comet.

Launched in 2004 into the outer Solar System, Rosetta lay in wait for the right time to pursue Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The spacecraft caught up with the comet as it headed into towards the Sun, and went into orbit around it.

One big question about comets has been: Where do comet tails come from? The question isn't yet conclusively answered, but there's more to work on now. In this photo we see a jet emerging from the comet, a bright plume coming out of a small circular dip bounded on one side by a 10-meter high wall. Rosetta flew right through the plume and analysis showed it was dust and water-ice.

(Image Credit: ESA, Rosetta, MPS, OSIRIS; UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA 
Description adapted from Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP))

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On December 23, 1672 Jean-Domenique Cassini discovered Saturn's moon Rhea.

Almost exactly 338 years later, the Cassini spacecraft took a picture of Rhea. This is a false color image of Rhea that emphasizes the differences between the hemisphere that leads as Rhea orbits, and the trailing hemisphere. It's not unusual for large icy Saturnian satellites to exhibit hemispheric albedo (reflectivity) and color differences.

(Image Credit: NASA/JPL/SSI)

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On December 24, 1968, Apollo 8 entered lunar orbit. Three NASA astronauts – Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and William Anders – became the first humans to orbit a body other than Earth, and to see the far side of the Moon.

Their photo ”Earthrise” remains a moving reminder of the fragility of our beautiful planet.

But it was Christmas Eve, and no human had ever been so far from home before. The crew held a live broadcast from lunar orbit, showing pictures of the Earth and Moon taken from their spacecraft. They ended the broadcast with the crew taking turns reading from the book of Genesis.

(Image Credit: NASA)

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*25*

Sir Isaac Newton, one of the greatest physicists of all time, was born in Lincolnshire in England on Christmas Day 1642, on the Julian calendar then in use.

Newton was inspired to link objects falling to Earth, such as an apple from his apple tree, to movements in the heavens. He united them in his theory of gravitation. Here is a picture of Newton's home Woolsthorpe Manor and a descendant of the apple tree.

Image credit: DS Pugh

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