Man-made Archipelagos, Dubai, United Arab Emirates (NASA, International Space Station, 10/14/13)

Check out these space images:

Man-made Archipelagos, Dubai, United Arab Emirates (NASA, International Space Station, 10/14/13)

Image by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center
Man-made archipelagos near Dubai, United Arab Emirates, are featured in this image photographed by an Expedition 37 crew member on the International Space Station, flying at approximately 220 miles above Earth. The municipality of Dubai is the largest city of the Persian Gulf emirate of the same name, and has built a global reputation for large-scale developments and architectural works. Among the most visible of these developments — particularly from the perspective of astronauts onboard the space station — are three man-made archipelagos. The two Palm Islands — Palm Jumeirah (right) and Palm Jebel Ali (out of frame further to the right) — appear as stylized palm trees when viewed from above. The World Islands (center frame) evoke a rough map of the world from an air- or space-borne perspective. The Palm Jumeirah project began in 2001 and required more than 50 million cubic meters of dredged sand to raise the islands above the Persian Gulf sea level. Construction of the Palm Jumeirah islands was completed in 2006; for several years now they have been developed for residential and commercial housing and infrastructure. Creation of the World Islands was begun in 2003 and completed in 2008, using 320 million cubic meters of sand and 37 million tons of rock for the surrounding 27 kilometer-long protective breakwater.

Image credit: NASA

Original image:
www.flickr.com/photos/nasa2explore/11574053636/in/set-721…

More about space station research:
www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/index.html

View more photos like this in the "NASA Earth Images" Flickr photoset:
www.flickr.com/photos/28634332@N05

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These official NASA photographs are being made available for publication by news organizations and/or for personal use printing by the subject(s) of the photographs. The photographs may not be used in materials, advertisements, products, or promotions that in any way suggest approval or endorsement by NASA. All Images used must be credited. For information on usage rights please visit: www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/features/MP_Photo_Guidelin…

Space Shuttle Endeavour

Image by ladybugbkt
The Space Shuttle Endeavour made a pit stop in Fort Worth, Texas and spent the night at the NAS Fort Worth Joint Reserve Base on its journey from California to Florida.

This shot won me a 1st place ribbon at the State Fair of Texas 2009!

DEM L316: Cat in Space (NASA, Chandra repost, 07/27/02)

Image by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center
Hello Flickr friends! Feb. 20 is a quirky holiday called "Love Your Pet Day." To celebrate, we looked up the top seven pets and searched for space images for each animal. Now we’re up to #2: the crafty and purring Cat. In their feline honor, here’s a beautiful image of supernova remnant DEM L316, with an outline like a cat in space.

And I have to be honest…the Cat’s Eye Nebula is always going to be my favorite space image. Here are two beautiful renditions from Chandra: www.flickr.com/photos/nasamarshall/3029837305/in/set-7215… and www.flickr.com/photos/nasamarshall/2677334954/in/set-7215….

Caption: This composite X-ray (red and green)/optical (blue) image reveals a cat-shaped image produced by the remnants of two exploded stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy. Although the shells of hot gas appear to be colliding, this may be an illusion. Chandra X-ray spectra show that the hot gas shell on the upper left contains considerably more iron than the one on the lower right. The high abundance of iron implies that this supernova remnant is the product of a Type Ia supernova triggered by the infall of matter from a companion star onto a white dwarf star.

In contrast, the much lower abundance of iron in the lower supernova remnant indicates that it was a Type II supernova produced by the explosion of a young, massive star. It takes billions of years to form a white dwarf star, whereas a massive young star will explode in a few million years. The disparity of ages in the progenitor stars means that it is very unlikely that they exploded very close to each other. The apparent proximity of the remnants is probably the result of a chance alignment.

Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/U.Illinois/R.Williams & Y.-H.Chu; Optical: NOAO/CTIO/U.Illinois/R.Williams & MCELS coll.

Original image: chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2005/d316/

Read more about Chandra:
www.nasa.gov/chandra

p.s. You can see all of our Chandra photos in the Chandra Group in Flickr at: www.flickr.com/groups/chandranasa/ We’d love to have you as a member!