Showing posts with label planets. Show all posts
Showing posts with label planets. Show all posts

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


Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

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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NASA's Chandra Observatory Finds Cosmic Showers Halt Galaxy Growth

NASA's Chandra Observatory Finds Cosmic Showers Halt Galaxy Growth:

NGC 2276*

This galaxy cluster comes from a sample of over 200 that were studied to determine how giant black holes at their centers affect the growth and evolution of their host galaxy, as reported in our latest press release. This study revealed that an unusual form of cosmic precipitation enables a feedback loop of cooling and heating, stifling star formation in the middle of these galaxy clusters.

Abell 2597, shown here, is a galaxy cluster located about one billion light years from Earth. This image contains X-rays from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory (blue), optical data from the Hubble Space Telescope and the Digitized Sky Survey (yellow) and emission from hydrogen atoms (red) from the Walter Baade Telescope in Chile.

According to this new study, the regulation of the largest black hole and their host galaxies works as follows: in some galaxies, such as NGC 2597, hot gas is able to quickly cool through radiation and energy loss, in a process called precipitation. The clouds of cool gas that result then fall into the central supermassive black hole, producing jets that heat the gas and prevent further cooling.

The researchers used Chandra data to estimate how long it should take for the gas to cool at different distances from the black holes in the study. Using that information, they were able to accurately predict the "weather" around each of the black holes.

They found that the precipitation feedback loop driven by energy produced by the black hole jets prevents the showers of cold clouds from getting too strong. The Chandra data indicate that the regulation of this precipitation has been going on for the last 7 billion years or more.

More information at http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2015/a2597/index.html

-Megan Watzke, CXC

Posted by Nelio Inacio at 6:39 AM 0 comments
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Saturday, March 7, 2015

Universe Planet iphone 5 wallpaper

Universe Planet iphone 5 wallpaper:



Universe Planet 03-640x1136 wallpapers.jpg
Date: Mar 2, 2015, 12:18 PM

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Posted by Nelio Inacio at 11:16 AM 0 comments
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Star Trek Wallpaper Fantasy

Star Trek Wallpaper:



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Date: Mar 2, 2015, 12:18 PM

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Posted by Nelio Inacio at 11:15 AM 0 comments
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Space Full Of Galaxy Wallpaper

Space Full Of Galaxy Wallpaper:



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Date: Mar 2, 2015, 12:18 PM

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Space Explosion Wallpaper

Space Explosion Wallpaper:



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Date: Nov 29, 2010, 3:10 PM

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Red planets space color wallpaper

Red planets space color wallpaper:



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Date: Mar 2, 2015, 12:18 PM

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A Blue Bridge of Stars between Cluster Galaxies

A Blue Bridge of Stars between Cluster Galaxies: APOD: 2014 July 15 - A Blue Bridge of Stars between Cluster Galaxies


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2014 July 15


See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available.
Explanation: Why is there a blue bridge of stars across the center of this galaxy cluster? First and foremost the cluster, designated SDSS J1531+3414, contains many large yellow elliptical galaxies. The cluster's center, as pictured above by the Hubble Space Telescope, is surrounded by many unusual, thin, and curving blue filaments that are actually galaxies far in the distance whose images have become magnified and elongated by the gravitational lens effect of the massive cluster. More unusual, however, is a squiggly blue filament near the two large elliptical galaxies at the cluster center. Close inspection of the filament indicates that it is most likely a bridge created by tidal effects between the two merging central elliptical galaxies rather than a background galaxy with an image distorted by gravitational lensing. The knots in the bridge are condensation regions that glow blue from the light of massive young stars. The central cluster region will likely undergo continued study as its uniqueness makes it an interesting laboratory of star formation.

Posted by Nelio Inacio at 11:11 AM 0 comments
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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


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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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A Solar Filament Erupts

A Solar Filament Erupts: APOD: 2014 July 20 - A Solar Filament Erupts


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2014 July 20


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Explanation: What's happened to our Sun? Nothing very unusual -- it just threw a filament. Toward the middle of 2012, a long standing solar filament suddenly erupted into space producing an energetic Coronal Mass Ejection (CME). The filament had been held up for days by the Sun's ever changing magnetic field and the timing of the eruption was unexpected. Watched closely by the Sun-orbiting Solar Dynamics Observatory, the resulting explosion shot electrons and ions into the Solar System, some of which arrived at Earth three days later and impacted Earth's magnetosphere, causing visible aurorae. Loops of plasma surrounding an active region can be seen above the erupting filament in the ultraviolet image. Over the past week the number of sunspots visible on the Sun unexpectedly dropped to zero, causing speculation that the Sun has now passed a very unusual solar maximum, the time in the Sun's 11-year cycle when it is most active.

Posted by Nelio Inacio at 11:08 AM 0 comments
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Cave with Aurora Skylight

Cave with Aurora Skylight: APOD: 2014 July 22 - Cave with Aurora Skylight


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2014 July 22


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Explanation: Yes, but have you ever seen aurora from a cave? To capture this fascinating juxtaposition between below and above, astrophotographer Bjargmundsson spent much of a night alone in the kilometer-long Raufarhólshellir lava cave in Iceland during late March. There, he took separate images of three parts of the cave using a strobe for illumination. He also took a deep image of the sky to capture faint aurora, and digitally combined the four images later. The 4600-year old lava tube has several skylights under which stone rubble and snow have accumulated. Oh -- the person standing on each mound -- it's the artist.

Posted by Nelio Inacio at 11:08 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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FANTASTIC ALMA Milky Way

ALMA Milky Way: APOD: 2014 July 24 - ALMA Milky Way


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2014 July 24


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Explanation: This alluring all-skyscape was taken 5,100 meters above sea level, from the Chajnantor Plateau in the Chilean Andes. Viewed through the site's rarefied atmosphere at about 50% sea level pressure, the gorgeous Milky Way stretches through the scene. Its cosmic rifts of dust, stars, and nebulae are joined by Venus, a brilliant morning star immersed in a strong band of predawn Zodiacal light. Still not completely dark even at this high altitude, the night sky's greenish cast is due to airglow emission from oxygen atoms. Around the horizon the dish antenna units of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, ALMA, explore the universe at wavelengths over 1,000 times longer than visible light.

Posted by Nelio Inacio at 11:06 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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NGC 253: Dusty Island Universe

NGC 253: Dusty Island Universe: APOD: 2014 July 26 - NGC 253: Dusty Island Universe


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2014 July 26


See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available.
Explanation: Shiny NGC 253 is one of the brightest spiral galaxies visible, and also one of the dustiest. Some call it the Silver Dollar Galaxy for its appearance in small telescopes, or just the Sculptor Galaxy for its location within the boundaries of the southern constellation Sculptor. First swept up in 1783 by mathematician and astronomer Caroline Herschel, the dusty island universe lies a mere 10 million light-years away. About 70 thousand light-years across, NGC 253 is the largest member of the Sculptor Group of Galaxies, the nearest to our own Local Group of Galaxies. In addition to its spiral dust lanes, tendrils of dust seem to be rising from a galactic disk laced with young star clusters and star forming regions in this sharp color image. The high dust content accompanies frantic star formation, earning NGC 253 the designation of a starburst galaxy. NGC 253 is also known to be a strong source of high-energy x-rays and gamma rays, likely due to massive black holes near the galaxy's center.

Posted by Nelio Inacio at 11:03 AM 0 comments
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Rho Ophiuchi Wide Field

Rho Ophiuchi Wide Field: APOD: 2014 July 27 - Rho Ophiuchi Wide Field


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2014 July 27


See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available.
Explanation: The clouds surrounding the star system Rho Ophiuchi compose one of the closest star forming regions. Rho Ophiuchi itself is a binary star system visible in the light-colored region on the image right. The star system, located only 400 light years away, is distinguished by its colorful surroundings, which include a red emission nebula and numerous light and dark brown dust lanes. Near the upper right of the Rho Ophiuchi molecular cloud system is the yellow star Antares, while a distant but coincidently-superposed globular cluster of stars, M4, is visible between Antares and the red emission nebula. Near the image bottom lies IC 4592, the Blue Horsehead nebula. The blue glow that surrounds the Blue Horsehead's eye -- and other stars around the image -- is a reflection nebula composed of fine dust. On the above image left is a geometrically angled reflection nebula cataloged as Sharpless 1. Here, the bright star near the dust vortex creates the light of surrounding reflection nebula. Although most of these features are visible through a small telescope pointed toward the constellations of Ophiuchus, Scorpius, and Sagittarius, the only way to see the intricate details of the dust swirls, as featured above, is to use a long exposure camera.

Posted by Nelio Inacio at 11:02 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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A Sky Portal in New Zealand

A Sky Portal in New Zealand: APOD: 2014 July 29 - A Sky Portal in New Zealand


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2014 July 29


See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available.
A Sky Portal in New Zealand

Image Credit & Copyright: Petr Horálek
Explanation: To some, it may look like a portal into the distant universe. To others, it may appear as the eye of a giant. Given poetic license, both are correct. Pictured above is a standard fisheye view of the sky -- but with an unusual projection. The view is from a perch in New Zealand called Te Mata Peak, a name that translates from the Maori language as "Sleeping Giant". The wondrous panorama shows the band of our Milky Way Galaxy right down the center of the sky, with the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds visible to the right. The red hue is atmospheric airglow that surprised the photographer as it was better captured by the camera than the eye. The above image was taken two weeks ago as the photographer's sister, on the left, and an acquaintance peered into the sky portal.

Posted by Nelio Inacio at 6:49 AM 0 comments
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M31: The Andromeda Galaxy

M31: The Andromeda Galaxy: APOD: 2014 July 30 - M31: The Andromeda Galaxy


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2014 July 30


See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available.
Explanation: Andromeda is the nearest major galaxy to our own Milky Way Galaxy. Our Galaxy is thought to look much like Andromeda. Together these two galaxies dominate the Local Group of galaxies. The diffuse light from Andromeda is caused by the hundreds of billions of stars that compose it. The several distinct stars that surround Andromeda's image are actually stars in our Galaxy that are well in front of the background object. Andromeda is frequently referred to as M31 since it is the 31st object on Messier's list of diffuse sky objects. M31 is so distant it takes about two million years for light to reach us from there. Although visible without aid, the above image of M31 was taken with a standard camera through a small telescope. Much about M31 remains unknown, including how it acquired its unusual double-peaked center.

Posted by Nelio Inacio at 6:48 AM 0 comments
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