Posts tagged space

This is Chandra Deep Field. It is an x-ray image of the Universe. It is concentrated on a single patch of sky and has one million seconds of exposure time. It is color coded with low energies in red, medium in green, and high in blue. The differences likely indicate galaxies at a distance of up to 12 billion light years that are feeding central black holes.

This is Thackeray’s Globules. They are rich star fields that glow with hydrogen gas in dense clouds of interstellar gas and dust. Each of the two overlapping clouds are more than one light ear wide. When combined, these clouds have 15 times the mass of our Sun. 

This is the Seagull Nebula. It is a broad expanse of glowing gas and dust that presents itself as a bird-like form. IC 2177 is what form the sweeping arc of the seagull’s wings. The nebula is dominated by a reddish glow of atomic hydrogen and spans over 100 light years. It is approximately 3,800 light years from Earth.

This is the Witch Head Nebula. It is a reflection nebula that has ties to the Orion constellation. The bright star of Rigel is located within this nebula and the glow is primarily caused by the light that is reflected from this star. It is approximately 100 light years away from Earth. 

Why do stars “twinkle”? The Earth’s atmosphere is, for lack of a better word, clumpy, which causes different air pockets to produce different images of a single star. Because the atmosphere is windy it is changing the positions and numbers of images so that stars appear to twinkle. 

Sirius is the brightest star in our night sky. In the photograph above, you can see it in the far left. Sirius is located in the constellation of Canis Major in the Orion Nebula. It is often referred to as the Dog Star. It is 20 times brighter and twice as massive as our Sun. 

This is a star cluster located within the Rosetta Nebula. It is a bright, young open star cluster that contains primarily bright blue stars. The ultraviolet light knocks the electrons away from the hydrogen atoms which causes the red light that glows from this nebula. 

This is a Globular Cluster. It is a system of million stars that orbit around different galaxies. This is M15, one of the brightest globular clusters in our galaxy. It is older and redder than the sun. 

This is the Pipe Nebula. It is a dark nebula that is shrouded in clouds that give it the shape of smoke rising out of a pipe. This illusion is created by the absoption of background starlight by dust. It is classified as an absorption nebula. 

This is La Superba. It is a very rare star in the Earth’s night sky. It is located in the constellation of Canes Venatici and it varies in brightness depending on the time of the year. At its maximum, it becomes bright enough to see with an unaided eye. It is approximately 710 light years away from Earth.