November 3, 2014 - Thanks to Carl

Thanks to Carl The world’s best-known astronomer was born eighty years ago this week. Carl Sagan was a professor of astronomy at Cornell University who reached millions of people through his popular publications and broadcasts. His Cosmos series became the most-watched TV series in public television history, and he co-founded The Planetary Society. Sagan died in 1996, but his work has inspired generations of individuals, including Rob Gendler and Jay GaBany, two amateur astronomers who collaborated with Hubble Space Telescope researchers to create this stunning image of spiral galaxy M106. Hubble data of the nucleus and inner spiral arms were combined with ground-based images taken by Gendler and GaBany with their own telescopes located at remote, dark sky sites in New Mexico.

Image credit: Rob Gendler / R. Jay GaBany / NASA / ESA / The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

Weekly Calendar

November 3-9, 2014

Holidays - Sky Events - Space History

Monday 3

Mercury 5° north of Spica
Taurid meteor shower

1957: Sputnik 2 carries dog Laika, first living creature to orbit Earth
1966: Test flight of Manned Orbital Laboratory components
1973: Mariner 10 launched
1994: STS-66 Atlantis launched