Birds and other animals
The Encounter
by CritterKeeper on Mar.04, 2010, under Birds and other animals
NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration, and A. Evans (University of Virginia, Charlottesville/NRAO/Stony Brook University)
A great encounter between a starry sea diver, at the top, and something bigger below is playing out in this image. That’s what I see. What stories can you tell about this image?
Swooping Eagle
by CritterKeeper on Mar.01, 2010, under Birds and other animals
NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration, and A. Evans (University of Virginia, Charlottesville/NRAO/Stony Brook University)
Galaxy interactions are always impressive. ESO 593–8 looks like a swooping eagle or a feather. Explore the NASA Hubble Space Telescope image of these merging galaxies. Do you see any patterns? What stories can you tell?
Galactic Gator
by CritterKeeper on Feb.18, 2010, under Birds and other animals
Credit: NASA, ESA, S. Gallagher (The University of Western Ontario), and J. English (University of Manitoba)
A galactic gator looms in this image of the interacting galaxies of the Hickson Compact Group 31. Four dwarf galaxies are in the process of colliding, lighting up the sky as new stars come to life.
Starry Sea Otters
by CritterKeeper on Feb.17, 2010, under Birds and other animals
Credit: NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration, and W. Keel (University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa)
The pair of interacting galaxies NGC 6621/2 play like a pair of starry sea otters in this image from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. NGC 6621, to the left, is the larger of the two; it’s spiral shape highly disturbed by NGC 6622. The encounter has pulled out a long tail of NGC 6622 wrapping around the body of the main galaxy.
Monkey Face
by CritterKeeper on Feb.10, 2010, under Birds and other animals
Credit: NASA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
Do you see a monkey face looking up? Or sparks and smoke left over from a fireworks display? The colorful filaments seen in this NASA Hubble Space Telescope image of N49 are all that’s left of a supernova explosion that took place thousands of years ago in the Large Magellanic Cloud. This supernova remnant is called N 49, or DEM L 190. Inside these sheets of glowing star debris lies a powerful, spinning neutron star called a pulsar. Pulsars give off regular pulses of energy like the ticking of a very precise clock. After the supernova blows off the outer layers of the star, it collapses under its own gravity. The star collapses so much that the protons and electrons spinning around the atoms of the star combine to form neutrons. A neutron star is very dense. Imagine our entire Sun packed into an area of just 20 kilometers (12 miles) in diameter! Gravity is very strong on a neutron star. On Earth, a spoonful of neutron star material would weigh billions of tons. The magnetic field of N 49 is super strong, trillions of times stronger than Earth’s, putting it in special class of bizarre celestial objects called magnetars.
Star-osaur
by CritterKeeper on Jan.29, 2010, under Birds and other animals
Credit: NASA, ESA, A. Aloisi (STScI/ESA), and The Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration
To me, this image from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope looks like a lumbering, long-necked Brontosaurus. Maybe a turtle with a long tail. What do you see in this image?
Of Snakes and Snails
by CritterKeeper on Jan.26, 2010, under Birds and other animals
Credit: NASA & ESA
The landscape of Mars’ hazy Hellas Basin twists and turns as if someone spread warm peanut butter across it and let it ooze downhill. Features, shown in this image from NASA’s HiRISE camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, snake across the plain. Some shapes curl up in shell-like shapes. Explore the strange landforms. Between some of the snake-like, flowing shapes, you can find sand dunes and craters.
Martian Polar Horse
by CritterKeeper on Dec.30, 2009, under Birds and other animals
Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
Flying across the ice fields of Mars, we find all sorts of strange and familiar shapes. I imagine this horse leaping in the thin ice layers in the southern polar region shown in this image from NASA’s HiRISE camera aboard Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Horse Bubbles
by CritterKeeper on Dec.29, 2009, under Birds and other animals
Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
Whether you see horses, dolphins or a jellyfish, the green and blue bubble of NGC 2371 catches the eye in this NASA Hubble Space Telescope image.
Dusty Cotton Candy
by CritterKeeper on Dec.04, 2009, under Birds and other animals
Credit: NASA & ESA
To me, this looks like a walrus with big whiskers coming up out of the dust. Or, since I have a sweet tooth, maybe a big bunch of dusty cotton candy.
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Welcome to Starry Critters!
Thanks for dropping by! This site combines incredible imagery from the Hubble Space Telescope, Spitzer Space Telescope and other great observatories with the imagination of children. Explore and share the patterns you see in the nebula, galaxies and star clusters.Note to Parents and Educators:
The main focus of the site are the images of space. We believe the explanations are best suited for parents, educators and upper grade students. Parents may find it helpful to view the site with their children and explore the universe together using the explanatory text as a guide. Background text is provided to let you know the real story behind the image. Links, very useful for parents and teachers, include definitions and will take you to other sites for even more detail.
Zoom in and out and pan around the images to find your own patterns in the stars. Be creative and think outside the box.Tell us your stories and let us know what you find! Feel free to join the discussion by leaving comments, and stay updated by subscribing to the RSS feed.
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