Showing posts with label Nebula. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nebula. Show all posts

Thursday, April 16, 2015

TRIFIDI NEBULA ACROSS THE UNIVERSE

TRIFIDI NEBULA ACROSS THE UNIVERSE :
TRIFIDI NEBULA ACROSS THE UNIVERSE
TRIFIDI NEBULA ACROSS THE UNIVERSE
Posted by Nelio Inacio at 1:00 PM 0 comments
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In the Center of the Trifid Nebula

In the Center of the Trifid Nebula: APOD: 2013 January 28 - In the Center of the Trifid Nebula


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2013 January 28


See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available.
Explanation: Clouds of glowing gas mingle with dust lanes in the Trifid Nebula, a star forming region toward the constellation of the Archer (Sagittarius). In the center, the three prominent dust lanes that give the Trifid its name all come together. Mountains of opaque dust appear on the right, while other dark filaments of dust are visible threaded throughout the nebula. A single massive star visible near the center causes much of the Trifid's glow. The Trifid, also known as M20, is only about 300,000 years old, making it among the youngest emission nebulae known. The nebula lies about 9,000 light years away and the part pictured here spans about 10 light years. The above image is a composite with luminance taken from an image by the 8.2-m ground-based Subaru Telescope, detail provided by the 2.4-m orbiting Hubble Space Telescope, color data provided by Martin Pugh and image assembly and processing provided by Robert Gendler.

Posted by Nelio Inacio at 12:05 PM 0 comments
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IC 1805: The Heart Nebula

IC 1805: The Heart Nebula: APOD: 2013 March 4 - IC 1805: The Heart Nebula


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2013 March 4


See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available.
Explanation: Sprawling across almost 200 light-years, emission nebula IC 1805 is a mix of glowing interstellar gas and dark dust clouds. Derived from its Valentine's-Day-approved shape, its nickname is the Heart Nebula. About 7,500 light-years away in the Perseus spiral arm of our galaxy, stars were born in IC 1805. In fact, near the cosmic heart's center are the massive hot stars of a newborn star cluster also known as Melotte 15, about 1.5 million years young. A little ironically, the Heart Nebula is located in the constellation of the mythical Queen of Aethiopia (Cassiopeia). This deep view of the region around the Heart Nebula spans about two degrees on the sky or about four times the diameter of the Full Moon.

Posted by Nelio Inacio at 11:56 AM 0 comments
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NGC 6751: The Glowing Eye Nebula

NGC 6751: The Glowing Eye Nebula: APOD: 2013 March 13 - NGC 6751: The Glowing Eye Nebula


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2013 March 13


See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available.
Explanation: Planetary nebulae can look simple, round, and planet-like in small telescopes. But images from the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope have become well known for showing these fluorescent gas shrouds of dying Sun-like stars to possess a staggering variety of detailed symmetries and shapes. This composite color Hubble image of NGC 6751, the Glowing Eye Nebula, is a beautiful example of a classic planetary nebula with complex features. It was selected in April of 2000 to commemorate the tenth anniversary of Hubble in orbit, but was reprocessed recently by an amateur as part of the Hubble Legacy program. Winds and radiation from the intensely hot central star (140,000 degrees Celsius) have apparently created the nebula's streamer-like features. The nebula's actual diameter is approximately 0.8 light-years or about 600 times the size of our Solar System. NGC 6751 is 6,500 light-years distant in the high-flying constellation of the Eagle (Aquila).

Posted by Nelio Inacio at 11:53 AM 0 comments
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M42: Inside the Orion Nebula

M42: Inside the Orion Nebula: APOD: 2013 March 20 - M42: Inside the Orion Nebula


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2013 March 20


See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available.
Explanation: The Great Nebula in Orion, an immense, nearby starbirth region, is probably the most famous of all astronomical nebulas. Here, glowing gas surrounds hot young stars at the edge of an immense interstellar molecular cloud only 1500 light-years away. In the above deep image in assigned colors highlighted by emission in oxygen and hydrogen, wisps and sheets of dust and gas are particularly evident. The Great Nebula in Orion can be found with the unaided eye near the easily identifiable belt of three stars in the popular constellation Orion. In addition to housing a bright open cluster of stars known as the Trapezium, the Orion Nebula contains many stellar nurseries. These nurseries contain much hydrogen gas, hot young stars, proplyds, and stellar jets spewing material at high speeds. Also known as M42, the Orion Nebula spans about 40 light years and is located in the same spiral arm of our Galaxy as the Sun.

Posted by Nelio Inacio at 11:51 AM 0 comments
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NGC 2736: The Pencil Nebula

NGC 2736: The Pencil Nebula: APOD: 2013 March 21 - NGC 2736: The Pencil Nebula


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2013 March 21


See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available.
Explanation: Moving left to right near the center of this beautifully detailed color composite, the thin, bright, braided filaments are actually long ripples in a sheet of glowing gas seen almost edge on. The interstellar shock wave plows through space at over 500,000 kilometers per hour. Cataloged as NGC 2736, its elongated appearance suggests its popular name, the Pencil Nebula. The Pencil Nebula is about 5 light-years long and 800 light-years away, but represents only a small part of the Vela supernova remnant. The Vela remnant itself is around 100 light-years in diameter, the expanding debris cloud of a star that was seen to explode about 11,000 years ago. Initially, the shock wave was moving at millions of kilometers per hour but has slowed considerably, sweeping up surrounding interstellar material. In the narrowband, wide field image, red and blue-green colors track the characteristic glow of ionized hydrogen and oxygen atoms.

Posted by Nelio Inacio at 11:51 AM 0 comments
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NGC 3132: The Southern Ring Nebula

NGC 3132: The Southern Ring Nebula: APOD: 2013 April 9 - NGC 3132: The Southern Ring Nebula


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2013 April 9


See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available.
Explanation: It's the dim star, not the bright one, near the center of NGC 3132 that created this odd but beautiful planetary nebula. Nicknamed the Eight-Burst Nebula and the Southern Ring Nebula, the glowing gas originated in the outer layers of a star like our Sun. In this reprocessed color picture, the hot purplish pool of light seen surrounding this binary system is energized by the hot surface of the faint star. Although photographed to explore unusual symmetries, it's the asymmetries that help make this planetary nebula so intriguing. Neither the unusual shape of the surrounding cooler shell nor the structure and placements of the cool filamentary dust lanes running across NGC 3132 are well understood.

Posted by Nelio Inacio at 11:36 AM 0 comments
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Saturday, April 11, 2015

IC 4628: The Prawn Nebula

IC 4628: The Prawn Nebula: APOD: 2013 September 23 - IC 4628: The Prawn Nebula


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2013 September 23


See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available.
Explanation: South of Antares, in the tail of the nebula-rich constellation Scorpius, lies emission nebula IC 4628. Nearby hot, massive stars, millions of years young, radiate the nebula with invisible ultraviolet light, stripping electrons from atoms. The electrons eventually recombine with the atoms to produce the visible nebular glow, dominated by the red emission of hydrogen. At an estimated distance of 6,000 light-years, the region shown is about 250 light-years across, spanning an area equivalent to four full moons on the sky. The nebula is also cataloged as Gum 56 for Australian astronomer Colin Stanley Gum, but seafood-loving astronomers might know this cosmic cloud as The Prawn Nebula.

Posted by Nelio Inacio at 7:15 AM 0 comments
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The Fairy of Eagle Nebula

The Fairy of Eagle Nebula:



The dust sculptures of the Eagle Nebula are evaporating

Explanation: The dust sculptures of the Eagle Nebula are evaporating. As powerful starlight whittles away these cool cosmic mountains, the statuesque pillars that remain might be imagined as mythical beasts. Pictured above is one of several striking dust pillars of the Eagle Nebula that might be described as a gigantic alien fairy. This fairy, however, is ten light years tall and spews radiation much hotter than common fire. The greater Eagle Nebula, M16, is actually a giant evaporating shell of gas and dust inside of which is a growing cavity filled with a spectacular stellar nursery currently forming an open cluster of stars. The above image in scientifically re-assigned colors was released in 2005 as part of the fifteenth anniversary celebration of the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope..




Posted by Nelio Inacio at 7:11 AM 0 comments
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The Great Carina Nebula

The Great Carina Nebula: APOD: 2013 October 15 - The Great Carina Nebula


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2013 October 15
See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available.
Explanation: A jewel of the southern sky, the Great Carina Nebula, also known as NGC 3372, spans over 300 light-years, one of our galaxy's largest star forming regions. Like the smaller, more northerly Great Orion Nebula, the Carina Nebula is easily visible to the unaided eye, though at a distance of 7,500 light-years it is some 5 times farther away. This gorgeous telescopic portrait reveals remarkable details of the region's glowing filaments of interstellar gas and obscuring cosmic dust clouds. Wider than the Full Moon in angular size, the field of view stretches over 300 light-years across the nebula. The Carina Nebula is home to young, extremely massive stars, including the still enigmatic variable Eta Carinae, a star with well over 100 times the mass of the Sun. Eta Carinae is the brightest star near the image center, just left of the dusty Keyhole Nebula (NGC 3324). While Eta Carinae itself maybe on the verge of a supernova explosion, X-ray images indicate that the Great Carina Nebula has been a veritable supernova factory.

Posted by Nelio Inacio at 7:05 AM 0 comments
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Sh2 155: The Cave Nebula

Sh2 155: The Cave Nebula: APOD: 2013 October 19 - Sh2-155: The Cave Nebula


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2013 October 19
See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available.
Explanation: This colorful skyscape features the dusty, reddish glow of Sharpless catalog emission region Sh2-155, the Cave Nebula. About 2,400 light-years away, the scene lies along the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy toward the royal northern constellation of Cepheus. Astronomical explorations of the region reveal that it has formed at the boundary of the massive Cepheus B molecular cloud and the hot, young, blue stars of the Cepheus OB 3 association. The bright rim of ionized hydrogen gas is energized by the radiation from the hot stars, dominated by the bright blue O-type star above picture center. Radiation driven ionization fronts are likely triggering collapsing cores and new star formation within. Appropriately sized for a stellar nursery, the cosmic cave is over 10 light-years across.

Posted by Nelio Inacio at 7:00 AM 0 comments
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Thursday, April 9, 2015

Horsehead and Orion Nebulas

Horsehead and Orion Nebulas: APOD: 2013 October 29 - Horsehead and Orion Nebulas


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2013 October 29
See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available.
Horsehead and Orion Nebulas

Image Credit & Copyright: Roberto Colombari & Federico Pelliccia
Explanation: The dark Horsehead Nebula and the glowing Orion Nebula are contrasting cosmic vistas. Adrift 1,500 light-years away in one of the night sky's most recognizable constellations, they appear in opposite corners of the above stunning mosaic. The familiar Horsehead nebula appears as a dark cloud, a small silhouette notched against the long red glow at the lower left. Alnitak is the easternmost star in Orion's belt and is seen as the brightest star to the left of the Horsehead. Below Alnitak is the Flame Nebula, with clouds of bright emission and dramatic dark dust lanes. The magnificent emission region, the Orion Nebula (aka M42), lies at the upper right. Immediately to its left is a prominent reflection nebula sometimes called the Running Man. Pervasive tendrils of glowing hydrogen gas are easily traced throughout the region.

Posted by Nelio Inacio at 11:40 AM 0 comments
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NGC 7841: The Smoke Nebula in Frustriaus

NGC 7841: The Smoke Nebula in Frustriaus: APOD: 2013 November 1 - NGC 7841: The Smoke Nebula in Frustriaus


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2013 November 1


See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available.
Explanation: NGC 7841 is probably known as the Smoke Nebula, found in the modern constellation of Frustriaus, the frustrated astrophotographer. Only a few light-nanoseconds from planet Earth, The Smoke Nebula is not an expanding supernova remnant along the plane of our Milky Way galaxy, though it does look a lot like one. Instead it was created by flash photography of rising smoke. The apparently rich starfield is actually composed of water droplets sprayed from a plant mister by an astrophotographer grown restless during a recent stretch of cloudy weather in Sweden. A single exposure and three external flashes were triggered to capture the not-quite-cosmic snapshot.

Posted by Nelio Inacio at 11:38 AM 0 comments
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Sunday, March 8, 2015

NGC 602 in the Flying Lizard Nebula

NGC 602 in the Flying Lizard Nebula: APOD: 2015 March 7 - NGC 602 in the Flying Lizard Nebula


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2015 March 7


See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available.
Explanation: Near the outskirts of the Small Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy some 200 thousand light-years distant, lies 5 million year young star cluster NGC 602. Surrounded by natal gas and dust, NGC 602 is just below center in this telescopic field of view with the angular size of the Full Moon on the sky. The cluster itself is about 200 light-years in diameter. Glowing interior ridges and swept back shapes strongly suggest that energetic radiation and shock waves from NGC 602's massive young stars have eroded the dusty material and triggered a progression of star formation moving away from the cluster's center. Of course, the more extended wings of emission in the region suggest a popular name for the complex cosmic environment, The Flying Lizard Nebula.

Posted by Nelio Inacio at 6:41 AM 0 comments
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Saturday, March 7, 2015

3D Homunculus Nebula

3D Homunculus Nebula: APOD: 2014 July 17 - 3D Homunculus Nebula


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2014 July 17


See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available.
3D Homunculus Nebula

Science Credit: W. Steffen (UNAM), M. Teodoro, T.I. Madura,
J.H. Groh, T.R. Gull, A. Mehner, M.F. Corcoran, A. Damineli, K. Hamaguchi

Image Credit: NASA, Goddard Space Flight Center/SVS - Inset: NASA, ESA, Hubble SM4 ERO Team
Explanation: If you're looking for something to print with that new 3D printer, try out a copy of the Homunculus Nebula. The dusty, bipolar cosmic cloud is around 1 light-year across but is slightly scaled down for printing to about 1/4 light-nanosecond or 80 millimeters. The full scale Homunculus surrounds Eta Carinae, famously unstable massive stars in a binary system embedded in the extensive Carina Nebula about 7,500 light-years distant. Between 1838 and 1845, Eta Carinae underwent the Great Eruption becoming the second brightest star in planet Earth's night sky and ejecting the Homunculus Nebula. The new 3D model of the still expanding Homunculus was created by exploring the nebula with the European Southern Observatory's VLT/X-Shooter. That instrument is capable of mapping the velocity of molecular hydrogen gas through the nebula's dust at a fine resolution. It reveals trenches, divots and protrusions, even in the dust obscured regions that face away from Earth. Eta Carinae itself still undergoes violent outbursts, a candidate to explode in a spectacular supernova in the next few million years.

Posted by Nelio Inacio at 11:10 AM 0 comments
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Ou4: A Giant Squid Nebula

Ou4: A Giant Squid Nebula: APOD: 2014 July 18 - Ou4: A Giant Squid Nebula


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2014 July 18


See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available.
Ou4: A Giant Squid Nebula

Image Credit: Romano Corradi (IAC),

Nicolas Grosso, Agnès Acker, Robert Greimel, Patrick Guillout
Explanation: A mysterious, squid-like apparition, this nebula is very faint, but also very large in planet Earth's sky. In the mosaic image, composed with narrowband data from the 2.5 meter Isaac Newton Telescope, it spans some 2.5 full moons toward the constellation Cepheus. Recently discovered by French astro-imager Nicolas Outters, the remarkable nebula's bipolar shape and emission are consistent with it being a planetary nebula, the gaseous shroud of a dying sun-like star, but its actual distance and origin are unknown. A new investigation suggests Ou4 really lies within the emission region SH2-129 some 2,300 light-years away. Consistent with that scenario, the cosmic squid would represent a spectacular outflow of material driven by a triple system of hot, massive stars, cataloged as HR8119, seen near the center of the nebula. If so, this truly giant squid nebula would physically be nearly 50 light-years across.

Posted by Nelio Inacio at 11:09 AM 0 comments
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IC 4603: Reflection Nebula in Ophiuchius

IC 4603: Reflection Nebula in Ophiuchius:

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2014 July 23


See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available.
Explanation: Why does this starfield photograph resemble an impressionistic painting? The effect is created not by digital trickery but by large amounts of interstellar dust. Dust, minute globs rich in carbon and similar in size to cigarette smoke, frequently starts in the outer atmospheres of large, cool, evolved stars. The dust is dispersed as the star dies and grows as things stick to it in the interstellar medium. Dense dust clouds are opaque to visible light and can completely hide background stars. For less dense clouds, the capacity of dust to preferentially reflect blue starlight becomes important, effectively blooming the stars blue light out and marking the surrounding dust. Nebular gas emissions, typically brightest in red light, can combine to form areas seemingly created on an artist's canvas. Photographed above is the central part of the nebula IC 4603 surrounding the bright star SAO 184376 (actually 8th magnitude) which mostly illuminates the blue reflection nebula. IC 4603 can be seen near the very bright star Antares (1st magnitude) toward the constellation of Ophiuchus.

Posted by Nelio Inacio at 11:07 AM 0 comments
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Cosmic Crab Nebula

Cosmic Crab Nebula: APOD: 2014 July 25 - Cosmic Crab Nebula


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2014 July 25


See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available.
Explanation: The Crab Pulsar, a city-sized, magnetized neutron star spinning 30 times a second, lies at the center of this tantalizing wide-field image of the Crab Nebula. A spectacular picture of one of our Milky Way's supernova remnants, it combines optical survey data with X-ray data from the orbiting Chandra Observatory. The composite was created as part of a celebration of Chandra's 15 year long exploration of the high energy cosmos. Like a cosmic dynamo the pulsar powers the X-ray and optical emission from the nebula, accelerating charged particles to extreme energies to produce the jets and rings glowing in X-rays. The innermost ring structure is about a light-year across. With more mass than the Sun and the density of an atomic nucleus, the spinning pulsar is the collapsed core of the massive star that exploded, while the nebula is the expanding remnant of the star's outer layers. The supernova explosion was witnessed in the year 1054.

Posted by Nelio Inacio at 11:05 AM 0 comments
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The Horsehead Nebula from Blue to Infrared

The Horsehead Nebula from Blue to Infrared: APOD: 2014 July 28 - The Horsehead Nebula from Blue to Infrared


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2014 July 28


See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available.
Explanation: One of the most identifiable nebulae in the sky, the Horsehead Nebula in Orion, is part of a large, dark, molecular cloud. Also known as Barnard 33, the unusual shape was first discovered on a photographic plate in the late 1800s. The red glow originates from hydrogen gas predominantly behind the nebula, ionized by the nearby bright star Sigma Orionis. The darkness of the Horsehead is caused mostly by thick dust, although the lower part of the Horsehead's neck casts a shadow to the left. Streams of gas leaving the nebula are funneled by a strong magnetic field. Bright spots in the Horsehead Nebula's base are young stars just in the process of forming. Light takes about 1,500 years to reach us from the Horsehead Nebula. The above image is a digital combination of images taken in blue, green, red, and hydrogen-alpha light from the Argentina, and an image taken in infrared light by the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope.

Posted by Nelio Inacio at 6:50 AM 0 comments
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Rings Around the Ring Nebula

Rings Around the Ring Nebula: APOD: 2014 August 13 - Rings Around the Ring Nebula


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2014 August 13


See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available.
Explanation: It is a familiar sight to sky enthusiasts with even a small telescope. There is much more to the Ring Nebula (M57), however, than can be seen through a small telescope. The easily visible central ring is about one light-year across, but this remarkably deep exposure - a collaborative effort combining data from three different large telescopes - explores the looping filaments of glowing gas extending much farther from the nebula's central star. This remarkable composite image includes narrowband hydrogen image, visible light emission, and infrared light emission. Of course, in this well-studied example of a planetary nebula, the glowing material does not come from planets. Instead, the gaseous shroud represents outer layers expelled from a dying, sun-like star. The Ring Nebula is about 2,000 light-years away toward the musical constellation Lyra.

Posted by Nelio Inacio at 6:42 AM 0 comments
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