Bridge to a Galaxy Far

Two new images are available in the gallery:

Bridge to a Galaxy Far:

Globular clusters orbit around the center of a galaxy, (Our Milky Way Galaxy has about 150 of them.) and in this image the inhabitants of a planet in one cluster have the pleasure of seeing their parent galaxy rise in all it’s glory every night. As they watch the galaxy rise, there’s more than one set of eyes in the galaxy admiring the globular cluster rising in their night sky.

Bridge to a Galaxy Far

 

A follow-up to “Bridge to a Galaxy Far”: Morning comes with the rising of the parent gas giant and sister moon as the nearby galaxy that dominated the night sky sets.

Bridge to a Galaxy Far – Morning

Enjoy!

Till next time,

RC Davison

 

Contact

Hollywood has introduced us to many extraterrestrials, most of them hell-bent on either eating us or conquering and enslaving us.  But, what will first contact really be like.  What will they look like?  What will they smell like?  How will they talk and communicate with us?  Will this contact be amicable or deadly?  So many questions and none of them will be answered until that very first moment we discover that we are not alone in the cosmos.  “Contact” depicts our first literal contact with an alien species.

Wallpaper - Contact

Contact – between two species.

Enjoy!

Till next time,

RC Davison

Mountain Mists

Water, water everywhere.  With the prevalence of water all around us (cosmically speaking), it’s not hard to imagine worlds with oceans, lakes, rivers and flowing waterfalls.  It would be very interesting to know if the beings populating these planets and moons appreciate water in it’s many dynamical forms as much as we do.

Relax and enjoy Mountain Mists!

Wallpaper - Mountain Mists

Mountain Mists

Till next time,

RC Davison

Cassini’s Garden

Wallpaper - Cassini's Garden

Cassini’s Garden

Cassini’s Garden was originally created to commemorate the amazing probe that has been in space for almost 20 years and orbiting Saturn and collecting data since 2004. But, it’s not just the machine, it’s the international group of people that worked together to make the mission happen.

Originally known as Cassini-Huygens, which identifies the Huygens lander that was carried onboard Cassini and successfully touched down on Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, on January 14, 2005. Huygens was provided by the European Space Agency (ESA) and along with the Italian space agency, Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI) and NASA formed the three partners for the mission. In total there were 17 countries involved in the mission. In all, over five thousand people have touched this mission since its development began in 1990; from engineers, technicians, designers, machinists, scientists, astronomers and a host of other specialists from around the world.

The Cassini mission has exemplified the best of what we can do when we cooperate together; something that is painfully lacking around the world today when it is needed most. The data produced by this mission is available to everyone – everybody on this planet benefits from the international cooperation that gave birth to Cassini-Huygens.

Cassini’s Garden shows a monument to the enduring probe that has been erected on Enceladus sometime in the future when we humans are no longer defined by our differences.

The probe has had a few problems during its tour but nothing that has diminished its mission nor prevented it from being extended two more times after its initial 4 year jaunt. The only thing that has forced Cassini to end its mission now is that it is running out of fuel, and to prevent it from potentially contaminating Titan or Enceladus with microbes from Earth, it will be directed to fly into Saturn on September 15, 2017. Truly a sad day for everyone involved with this noble machine or that have followed its mission over the years.

And, speaking of potential for life, a paper has recently been published discussing the data Cassini has collected from a fly-through of the plums of water ice and gas venting from the small moon Enceladus’ southern pole in October of 2015. This data revealed the presence of molecular hydrogen (H2) in the gas/ice cloud, which was mostly water.  The presence of hydrogen indicates that there may be hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor of Enceladus.  A chemical reaction between the water and the rocks on the ocean floor, driven by the heat could create the hydrogen. This in turn could be used by bacteria as a food source when combined with carbon dioxide dissolved in the water.

The H2 is not direct evidence of life, but compelling evidence that all the right ingredients are there to support life – probably bacterial – like we see around the hydrothermal vents in our oceans. One more feather in Cassini’s cap!  Check out NASA’s website for more information on this.

Cassini’s Finale – Plunging between the inner rings and Saturn’s atmosphere.

With Cassini setting up to dive between the planet and its inner rings later this month as a finale to its mission, we can expect to see some really amazing images and learn more about this majestic ringed planet than ever before. And, as the data is processed and digested we can expect more revelations about this planet in the years to come.

Thank you to the Cassini team for all their hard work and an amazing ride!

For more information check out Cassini’s Grand Finale.

Till next time,

RC Davison

Exile – Summer Solstice

A new wallpaper is up: Exile – Summer Solstice.  I’ve revisited the original Exile image seen below and given the prisoner a summer solstice to enjoy.

Exile - Wallpaper from orbitalmaneuvers

The prisoner in exile.

But as in most things in life, it is bittersweet, as it only serves as a reminder of his time away from the distant blue dot in the sky, his home planet.

Exile – Summer Solstice

Enjoy!

Till next time,

RC Davison

“Menagerie” – New Wallpaper Available

I only started this about a year ago and finally got around to finishing it!  That is after dozens of iterations and renderings.  I think it’s finally finished…I think…

The Visitor adds to his collection after another visit to Earth.  Magic or technology?  To us, it is one in the same.

Have they been here already?  Have they added to their collection one by one and we’ve not noticed?  Are they out there at all?  Maybe one day we’ll find out, until then, enjoy!

“Menagerie”

Till next time,

RC Davison