Archive for November, 2009
Swimming in a starry lagoon
Credit: NASA/ESA and the Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI)/HEIC
Swimming in a starry lagoon 160,000 light-years from Earth toward the southern constellation Doradus, I see the head and fins of a giant turtle. When you explore the image, the blue stars form the halo around the turtle’s head. Can you find other patterns in the star cloud?
Carnival of Space #131
Welcome to the Carnival of Space #131; the greatest weekly collection of space-related blogs here on Earth and beyond! I’ll be your ringmaster for the week.
Last week was Thanksgiving here in the United States. With all the festivities, family time, trips to the science museum and indulging in the sweet stuff, I fell behind in keeping up with all the cool astronomy going on. So I’m thankful I have this traveling carnival to help me catch up and for the cheat sheet for chatting up astronomy over the dinner table provided by AliceAstro at AstroInfo. Had I done much socializing, I’m sure this primer would have come in handy.
If you’re visiting StarryCritters for the first time; Welcome! I am a science writer, web designer/developer and a JPL Solar System Ambassador. StarryCritters, a NASA Top Star winner, was created mainly to help children use their imaginations by creating stories from what they see in images taken by NASA’s Great Observatories, particularly Hubble Space Telescope. So explore the site and the universe through the amazing images. Use the tool to pan and zoom around the images. A button on the far right of the toolbar will cause the image to fill your screen with starry wonder. Feel free to play.
Thanksgiving Swan
Credit: NASA, H. Ford (JHU), G. Illingworth (UCSC/LO), M.Clampin (STScI), G. Hartig (STScI), the ACS Science Team, and ESA
I can’t share turkey with you today but I can share a deep look by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope of the Swan Nebula. When you’re zoomed out, look for the red part of the image near the left edge. This part of the nebula has a turkey look to me. What else can you find as you explore the image?
Galactic X
Credit: NASA, ESA
When I was a kid, my brother and I believed there was a treasure in the woods near our house. We wished for a map that would mark the spot with a big red X. In this image from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, a faint X marks the treasure of NGC 4710.
Hills and Valleys
Credit: NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
Hills and valleys make up the starry landscape of the star-forming region of NGC 3324. This image from NASA’s Hubble Space telescope shows the edge of a giant cavity of gas. Glowing blue light sets the backdrop for wisps of gas and dark trunks of dust. Ultraviolet radiation and howling solar winds from a cluster of extremely massive and hot young stars outside the image, are causing the nebula to glow. The stars are also pushing gas and dust away from the center to form the wall of the cavity.
Welcome
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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