Archive for April, 2010
Cotton Candy Butterfly
Credit: Sun Kwok and Kate Su (University of Calgary), Bruce Hrivnak (Valparaiso University), and NASA
The moment captured by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope of the Cotton Candy Nebula is a fleeting one. The Cotton Candy Nebula shows the beginning stages of the transformation from red giant to planetary nebula. Astronomers call this stage a proto-planetary nebula and it lasts only about 1,000 years.
Cat’s Paw
Credit: ESO
Resembling a cat’s paw from Earth, this glowing cloud of hydrogen gas spans 50 light-years. The Cat’s Paw Nebula, or NGC 6334, is a vast, active stellar nursery. It is also home to some of the most massive stars in the Milky Way Galaxy. These stars are only a few million years old; just younglings in the universe. Our Sun, by comparison, is 4.5 billion years old and is considered middle-aged. Massive stars form in this cloud because of the abundance of gas and dust; both ingredients for making baby stars. The massive stars will only live a short time however. In just tens of millions of years, these stars will explode in supernovae. These blasts will spread gas far and wide. The shockwaves will squeeze gas and dust together creating areas for new stars to form.
Carina’s Misty Mountains
Credit: NASA, ESA, and M. Livio and the Hubble 20th Anniversary Team (STScI)
Towering over the landscape of the Carina Nebula, a surreal, mist-enshrouded, mountainscape awaits travelers today. This dramatic image celebrates the 20th anniversary of the launch of NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope.
Galactic “I”
Credit: NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration, and A. Evans (University of Virginia, Charlottesville/NRAO/Stony Brook University)
A pair of interacting galaxies line up to form the letter “I” in this image from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. UGC 9618 is in the first stages of merging.
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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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