Philosophy
Black Widow Nebula
In the constellation Circinus, where previous visible-light observations see only a faint hourglass-shaped patch of obscuring dust and gas, NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope's dust-piercing eyes see a big "Black Widow Nebula" teeming with clusters of massive young stars.
The two opposing bubbles are being formed in opposite directions by the powerful outflows from massive groups of forming stars. The baby stars can be seen as specks of yellow where the two bubbles overlap.
When individual stars form from molecular clouds of gas and dust they produce intense radiation and very strong particle winds. Both the radiation and the stellar winds blow the dust outward from the star creating a cavity or, bubble.
In the case of the Black Widow Nebula, astronomers suspect that a large cloud of gas and dust condensed to create multiple clusters of massive star formation. The combined winds from these groups of large stars probably blew out bubbles into the direction of least resistance, forming a double bubble.
Ghost Head Nebula
One of a chain of star-forming regions lying south of the Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud . Two bright regions (the eyes of the ghost), named A1 and A2, are very hot, glowing blobs of hydrogen and oxygen. The bubble in A1 is produced by the hot, intense radiation and powerful stellar wind from a single massive star. A2 has a more complex appearance due to the presence of more dust, and it contains several hidden, massive stars. The massive stars in A1 and A2 must have formed within the last 10,000 years since their natal gas shrouds are not yet disrupted by the powerful radiation of the
newly born stars.
The Witch's Broom Nebula
Ten thousand years ago, before the dawn of recorded human history, a new light must suddenly have appeared in the night sky and faded after a few weeks. Today we know this light was an exploding star and record the colorful expanding cloud as the Veil Nebula. Pictured above is the west end of the Veil Nebula known technically as NGC 6960 but less formally as the Witch's Broom Nebula. The rampaging gas gains its colors by impacting and exciting existing nearby gas. The supernova remnant lies about 1400 light-years away towards the constellation of Cygnus. This Witch's Broom actually spans over three times the angular size of the full Moon. The bright blue star 52 Cygnus is visible with the unaided eye from a dark location but unrelated to the ancient supernova.
- Deceased--space Telescope Herschel
Space Telescope Herschel May 14th, 2009 to April 29th, 2013 "Space Telescope Herschel Ran Out of Liquid Helium Today as Planned" by Mark Hoffman April 29th, 2013 SCIENCE WORLD REPORT The crucial liquid helium coolant of ESA’s Herschel space observatory...
- Death Warrant For The Hubble Telescope
"Hubble has 3 more years to make amazing discoveries, NASA says" by Karen Kaplan March 23rd, 2013 Los Angeles Times Scientists and space junkies got some good news from NASA on Friday: The space agency announced it would keep the Hubble Space Telescope...
- Holiday Gift From Hubble...sharpless 2-106 Or Snow Angel
The bipolar star-forming region, called Sharpless 2-106, or S106 for short, looks like a soaring, celestial snow angel. The outstretched "wings" of the nebula record the contrasting imprint of heat and motion against the backdrop of a colder medium....
- Halloween
Thanks to Bram Stoker's Dracula "Desmodus rotundus"has been getting a bad reputation--creatures that fill gaps in our nightmares. "Vampire Bat" "Desmodus rotundus (vampire bat)" The book: "Dracula/Bram Stoker" Other nasty blood suckers: "Leeches"...
- False Astronomy Colors And Epistemology?
This in essence is a question of epistemology and the truth of the knowledge of what is presented to us via terrestrial and "in space" instruments that provide us photographs of objects beyond Earth. I vacillate between the Spitzer and Hubble images for...
Philosophy
Halloween treats from space
Black Widow NebulaIn the constellation Circinus, where previous visible-light observations see only a faint hourglass-shaped patch of obscuring dust and gas, NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope's dust-piercing eyes see a big "Black Widow Nebula" teeming with clusters of massive young stars.
The two opposing bubbles are being formed in opposite directions by the powerful outflows from massive groups of forming stars. The baby stars can be seen as specks of yellow where the two bubbles overlap.
When individual stars form from molecular clouds of gas and dust they produce intense radiation and very strong particle winds. Both the radiation and the stellar winds blow the dust outward from the star creating a cavity or, bubble.
In the case of the Black Widow Nebula, astronomers suspect that a large cloud of gas and dust condensed to create multiple clusters of massive star formation. The combined winds from these groups of large stars probably blew out bubbles into the direction of least resistance, forming a double bubble.
Ghost Head Nebula One of a chain of star-forming regions lying south of the Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud . Two bright regions (the eyes of the ghost), named A1 and A2, are very hot, glowing blobs of hydrogen and oxygen. The bubble in A1 is produced by the hot, intense radiation and powerful stellar wind from a single massive star. A2 has a more complex appearance due to the presence of more dust, and it contains several hidden, massive stars. The massive stars in A1 and A2 must have formed within the last 10,000 years since their natal gas shrouds are not yet disrupted by the powerful radiation of the
newly born stars.
The Witch's Broom Nebula Ten thousand years ago, before the dawn of recorded human history, a new light must suddenly have appeared in the night sky and faded after a few weeks. Today we know this light was an exploding star and record the colorful expanding cloud as the Veil Nebula. Pictured above is the west end of the Veil Nebula known technically as NGC 6960 but less formally as the Witch's Broom Nebula. The rampaging gas gains its colors by impacting and exciting existing nearby gas. The supernova remnant lies about 1400 light-years away towards the constellation of Cygnus. This Witch's Broom actually spans over three times the angular size of the full Moon. The bright blue star 52 Cygnus is visible with the unaided eye from a dark location but unrelated to the ancient supernova.
- Deceased--space Telescope Herschel
Space Telescope Herschel May 14th, 2009 to April 29th, 2013 "Space Telescope Herschel Ran Out of Liquid Helium Today as Planned" by Mark Hoffman April 29th, 2013 SCIENCE WORLD REPORT The crucial liquid helium coolant of ESA’s Herschel space observatory...
- Death Warrant For The Hubble Telescope
"Hubble has 3 more years to make amazing discoveries, NASA says" by Karen Kaplan March 23rd, 2013 Los Angeles Times Scientists and space junkies got some good news from NASA on Friday: The space agency announced it would keep the Hubble Space Telescope...
- Holiday Gift From Hubble...sharpless 2-106 Or Snow Angel
The bipolar star-forming region, called Sharpless 2-106, or S106 for short, looks like a soaring, celestial snow angel. The outstretched "wings" of the nebula record the contrasting imprint of heat and motion against the backdrop of a colder medium....
- Halloween
Thanks to Bram Stoker's Dracula "Desmodus rotundus"has been getting a bad reputation--creatures that fill gaps in our nightmares. "Vampire Bat" "Desmodus rotundus (vampire bat)" The book: "Dracula/Bram Stoker" Other nasty blood suckers: "Leeches"...
- False Astronomy Colors And Epistemology?
This in essence is a question of epistemology and the truth of the knowledge of what is presented to us via terrestrial and "in space" instruments that provide us photographs of objects beyond Earth. I vacillate between the Spitzer and Hubble images for...