The World Beyond BetterMost > Anything Goes
NASA's Picture of the Day
injest:
--- Quote from: brokeback_dev on September 03, 2008, 12:05:34 pm ---Wow our Planet is beautiful
--- End quote ---
so is our lil moon!
injest:
Spokes in the Helix Nebula
Credit & Copyright: Don Goldman, Sierra Remote Observatories
Explanation: At first glance, the Helix Nebula (aka NGC 7293), looks simple and round. But this well-studied example of a planetary nebula, produced near the end of the life of a sun-like star, is now understood to have a surprisingly complex geometry. Its extended loops and comet-shaped features have been explored in Hubble Space Telescope images. Still, a 16-inch diameter telescope and camera with broad and narrow band filters was used to create this sharp view of the Helix. The color composite also reveals the nebula's intriguing details, including light-year long, bluegreen radial stripes or spokes that give it the appearance of a cosmic bicycle wheel. The spoke features seem to indicate that the Helix Nebula is itself an old and evolved planetary nebula. The Helix is a mere seven hundred light years from Earth, in the constellation Aquarius.
injest:
they say it looks like a bicycle wheel...to me it looks like an eye
Brokeback_Dev:
Fascinating
injest:
NGC 6960: The Witch's Broom Nebula
Credit & Copyright: Adam Block, Mount Lemmon SkyCenter, Univ. Arizona
Explanation: Ten thousand years ago, before the dawn of recorded human history, a new light must suddenly have appeared in the night sky and faded after a few weeks. Today we know this light was an exploding star and record the colorful expanding cloud as the Veil Nebula. Pictured above is the west end of the Veil Nebula known technically as NGC 6960 but less formally as the Witch's Broom Nebula. The expanding debris cloud gains its colors by sweeping up and exciting existing nearby gas. The supernova remnant lies about 1400 light-years away towards the constellation of Cygnus. This Witch's Broom actually spans over three times the angular size of the full Moon. The bright star 52 Cygni is visible with the unaided eye from a dark location but unrelated to the ancient supernova
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version