Archive for October, 2009
The Witch Head
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/L.Rebull (SSC/Caltech)
This cosmic witch is brewing up baby stars. The Witch Head Nebula is a reflection nebula about 1,000 light-years from Earth. It reflects the light of the bright star Rigel in the constellation of Orion, the Hunter. The new stars show up as pink dots in this image from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope. Spitzer explores the universe in infrared, showing scientists warm bodies in space, such as stars and even planets. Explore the image and find the pink stars. Why do you think they are bunched together?
Hooded in the mist
Credit: European Space Agency, NASA, and J. Hester (Arizona State University)
This nebula is known as the Omega or Swan Nebula but look close. Can you see the hooded figure in the mist?
Ghost Head
Credit: ESA, NASA, & Mohammad Heydari-Malayeri (Observatoire de Paris, France)
Ghostly eyes peer out of this star-forming region called NGC 2080 near the 30 Doradus nebula. Astronomers also know the nebula as the “Ghost Head Nebula” because of its phantom-like appearance in earth-bound telescopes. Two bright areas made up of blobs of hot hydrogen gas form the ‘eyes’ of the nebula. A1, on the left, contains a single massive star while A2 contains several stars hidden in the dust. The stars of A1 and A2 are carving out hollow areas in the gas. We are actually looking inside the bowl-shaped area created by the strong solar winds blowing from the new stars. Astronomers are interested in areas like NGC 2080 because it gives them a glimpse of how different stars form.
Faces on Mars
Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
Many observers can’t help but see faces on Mars. There is the famous non-“Face of Cydonia.” Viking 1 showed us a huge smiley face in Galle Crater. And we have a lot of fun seeing faces and features in the images of the HiRISE camera aboard Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Growing Eye
Credit: NASA, ESA, and H. Bond (STScI)
Before 2002, this “eye” in space went unnoticed. The dim star underwent an outburst that for a short time increased its brightness more than 600,000 times that of our Sun. Ever since the dramatic brightening, astronomers have been turning NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope back to watch a light show unfold.
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The ancient peoples saw pictures in the sky. From those patterns in the heavens, ancient storytellers created legends about heroes, maidens, dragons, bears, centaurs, dogs and mythical creatures…Read More
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