Tag: supernova
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.
Veiled Fish
by CritterKeeper on Feb.08, 2010, under Water Creatures
Credit: NASA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
Wispy filaments of the Veil Nebula resemble a fish with multi-colored fins in this image from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. The scattered pieces of the Veil Nebula are all that remains of a brilliant supernova that exploded 5,000 to 10,000 years ago. The entire nebula spans a huge area in the sky equivalent to six full moons.
Smoky Worm
by CritterKeeper on Jan.13, 2010, under Bugs
Credit: NASA & ESA
This wispy smoke-like cloud of gas flies through space in this image from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope.
Horseshoes and Jellyfish
by CritterKeeper on Nov.17, 2009, under Water Creatures
Credit: NASA, ESA, and Hubble SM4 ERO Team
Glowing pink and purple gas resembling a horseshoe or a jellyfish are all that’s left of supernova remnant N132D in the Large Magellanic Cloud. A star 10 to 15 times larger and more massive than the Sun exploded about 3,000 years ago to create this expanding shell of gas and dust. NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope’s sharp vision shows astronomers details within the remnant.
Cassiopeia Fireworks
by CritterKeeper on Nov.12, 2009, under Eyes in the Sky
Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration
In about 1667, a star about 10,000 light years from Earth exploded in the constellation Cassiopeia but it wasn’t noticed by astronomers on Earth. Today, images from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope show the remnants of this fireworks display. Cassiopeia A, or Cas A, is one of the youngest supernova in the Milky Way Galaxy. Huge swirls of star debris glow as it moves through space.
Eyes Above
by CritterKeeper on Oct.23, 2009, under Eyes in the Sky
Credit: NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage Team STScI/AURA)
A face looks down on a blue nebula in this image from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope.
The Crab
by CritterKeeper on Aug.25, 2009, under Water Creatures
Credit: NASA, ESA, J. Hester and A. Loll (Arizona State University)
In the year 1054, Japanese, Chinese and Native American astronomers recorded a violent event. They saw a star that hadn’t been there before. It turned out to be a supernova that formed the Crab Nebula and it’s one of the earliest recorded astronomical events by humans.
Angry Fish
by CritterKeeper on Aug.05, 2009, under Water Creatures
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, HEIC, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
Acknowledgment: Y.-H. Chu and R. M. Williams (UIUC)
To me, this image of what happens after a supernova blows up, has always looked like a piranha or some sort of angry fish. This image of N 63A; that’s what astronomers call it, used to be a huge star, many times bigger than the sun. Stars like N 63A have violent lives. They live quickly and then explode with force that for a short time they outshine entire galaxies.
-
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.
You can also subscribe by email by filling the field below:
