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October 6, 2014 - Kepler's Supernova

Kepler’s Supernova A new star appeared in the night sky 410 years ago this week, a star that was visible during the day and dimmed over several weeks. Witnesses to this supernova explosion included the famous astronomer Johannes Kepler, who observed and documented the object for a year and wrote a book about the new star. Today, the debris from this exploded star in the constellation Ophiuchus is known as the Kepler supernova remnant. In this image, the result of eight days of observations with the orbiting Chandra X-ray telescope, colors represent a range of increasing energies: red (low), yellow, green, blue, and purple (high). The newly-revealed asymmetrical shape of the expanding debris leads scientists to believe it is farther away than previously thought, perhaps 13,000 to 23,000 light-years.

Image credit: X-ray: NASA / CXC / SAO / D.Patnaude; Optical: DSS

Weekly Calendar

October 6-12, 2014

Holidays - Sky Events - Space History

 

Moon phase Monday 6

Moon at perigee

1990: STS-41 Discovery launched
1992: NASA and RASA sign Human Spaceflight Agreement to share astronauts and cosmonauts
2008: MESSENGER spacecraft makes its second flyby of Mercury

Moon phase Tuesday 7

Uranus at opposition

1885: Niels Bohr born
1959: Luna 3 returns first images of the lunar far side
2002: STS-112 Atlantis launched
2010: Soyuz TMA-01M launched carrying ISS Expedition 25/26 crew

Moon phase Wednesday 8

Full Moon 6:51 AM ET
Total lunar eclipse (visible in Australia to U.S. Great Lakes)
Uranus 1.2° south of Moon
Draconid meteors

1873: Ejnar Hertzsprung born

Moon phase Thursday 9

Draconid meteor shower

1604: Kepler’s Supernova observed
2009: LCROSS detects water on the Moon

Moon phase Friday 10

1846: William Lassell discovers Triton, moon of Neptune
1980: Very Large Array dedicated
1983: Venera 15 orbits Venus
2007: ISS Expedition 16 crew launched

Moon phase Saturday 11

1968: Apollo 7 launched
1969: Soyuz 6, 7 & 8 in space at once
1994
: Magellan mission ends
2000: STS-92 Discovery launched
2005: Shenzhou 6 launched

Moon phase Sunday 12

1964: Voskhod 1 launched, first three-person space flight
1977: Shuttle Enterprise’s first glide test without aerodynamic tailcone
2008: ISS Expedition 18 crew launched

Suggestions for new history dates or better links? Corrections for errors on this page? Please e-mail me.