Posts Tagged stars
Butterflies
This star cluster is beautiful, just like today is, and just like ten years ago was. Stars shine brightly!
To some, the outline of the open cluster of stars M6 resembles a butterfly. M6, also known as NGC 6405, spans about 20 light-years and lies about 2,000 light years distant. M6 can best be seen in a dark sky with binoculars towards the constellation of Scorpius, coving about as much of the sky as the full moon. Like other open clusters, M6 is composed predominantly of young blue stars, although the brightest star is nearly orange. M6 is estimated to be about 100 million years old. Determining the distance to clusters like M6 helps astronomers calibrate the distance scale of the universe.
Jet Streams
Credit: ESO/WFI (visible); MPIfR/ESO/APEX/A. Weiss et al. (microwave); NASA/CXC/CfA/R. Kraft et al. (X-ray); Inset: NASA/TANAMI/C. Müller et al. (radio)
Hubble unveiled some amazing time-lapse videos of supersonic jets released by young stars this week; above are some (scary) plasma jets shooting out of a galaxy. I don’t know what this has to do with Labor Day weekend, but here you go anyway. Enjoy.
Jets of streaming plasma expelled by the central black hole of a massive spiral galaxy light up this composite image of Centaurus A. The jets emanating from Cen A are over a million light years long. Exactly how the central black hole expels infalling matter is still unknown. After clearing the galaxy, however, the jets inflate large radio bubbles that likely glow for millions of years. If excited by a passing front, radio bubbles can even light up again after a billion years. X-ray light is depicted in the above composite image in blue, while microwave light is false-colored orange. The inset image in radio light shows newly imaged, never seen-before details of the innermost light year of the central jet.
Millions of Stars
Image Credit & Copyright: Gordon Mandell
And to think, all of these are just one clump in a star-filled sky…
Featured in this sharp telescopic image, globular star cluster Omega Centauri (NGC 5139) is some 15,000 light-years away. Some 150 light-years in diameter, the cluster is packed with about 10 million stars much older than the Sun. Omega Cen is the largest of 200 or so known globular clusters that roam the halo of our Milky Way galaxy. Though most star clusters consist of stars with the same age and composition, the enigmatic Omega Cen exhibits the presence of different stellar populations with a spread of ages and chemical abundances. In fact, Omega Cen may be the remnant core of a small galaxy merging with the Milky Way.
Two Hemispheres
Image Credit & Copyright: Tunç Tezel and Stéphane Guisard (TWAN)
What are we looking at? A full panorama of the Milky Way, as seen from both Northern and Southern Hemispheres of the earth…
A quest to find planet Earth’s darkest night skies led to this intriguing panorama. In projection, the mosaic view sandwiches the horizons visible in all-sky images taken from the northern hemisphere’s Canary Island of La Palma (top) and the south’s high Atacama Desert between the two hemispheres of the Milky Way Galaxy. The photographers’ choice of locations offered locally dark skies enjoyed by La Palma’s Roque de los Muchachos Observatory and Paranal Observatory in Chile. But it also allowed the directions to the Milky Way’s north and south galactic poles to be placed near the local zenith. That constrained the faint, diffuse glow of the plane of the Milky Way to the mountainous horizons. As a result, an even fainter S-shaped band of light, sunlight scattered by dust along the solar system’s ecliptic plane, can be completely traced through both northern and southern hemisphere night skies.
Star Factory
Credit: ESO, INAF-VST, OmegaCAM
This celestial image gets to be a post for having the words “star factory” in the title. I know that’s an accurate description of what’s happening, but I also like the mental image is concocts… a star factory. I’d like to tour the Star Factory, please. Please?
Sculpted by stellar winds and radiation, the star factory known as Messier 17 lies some 5,500 light-years away in the nebula-rich constellation Sagittarius. At that distance, this degree wide field of view spans almost 100 light-years, courtesy of the European Southern Observatory’s new VLT Survey Telescope and OmegaCAM. The sharp, false color image includes both optical and infrared data, following faint details of the region’s gas and dust clouds against a backdrop of central Milky Way stars. Stellar winds and energetic light from hot, massive stars formed from M17′s stock of cosmic gas and dust have slowly carved away at the remaining interstellar material producing the cavernous appearance and undulating shapes. M17 is also known as the Omega Nebula or the Swan Nebula.
Stars and Dust
Credit & Copyright: Leonardo Julio (Astronomia Pampeana)
I love the colors in this: blues, browns against an almost-burgundy purple background. Lovely.
Cosmic dust clouds sprawl across a rich field of stars in this sweeping telescopic vista near the northern boundary of Corona Australis, the Southern Crown. Probably less than 500 light-years away and effectively blocking light from more distant, background stars in the Milky Way, the densest part of the dust cloud is about 8 light-years long. At its tip (upper right) is a group of lovely reflection nebulae cataloged as NGC 6726, 6727, 6729, and IC 4812. A characteristic blue color is produced as light from hot stars is reflected by the cosmic dust. The smaller yellowish nebula (NGC 6729) surrounds young variable star R Coronae Australis. Magnificent globular star cluster NGC 6723 is toward the upper right corner of the view. While NGC 6723 appears to be part of the group, it actually lies nearly 30,000 light-years away, far beyond the Corona Australis dust clouds.
Raining Peridot
Posted by Danielle in News & Happenings on June 7, 2011
An artists impression of the green crystals falling down upon the star, almost like glitter. Picture: NASA/JPL
I’m a big fan of olivine/peridot, so when I saw this article about — get this — a star bombarded by peridot rain, I knew I had to post it!
MORE proof that space is amazing, this time from the not-too-distant constellation of Orion, where one star is currently being bombarded with green crystal rain.
The embryonic star is described as “Sun-like” – as in our Sun – and named HOPS-38.
The crystals are a green mineral called olivine and have been spotted raining down from the clouds of gas engulfing HOPS-68 by NASA’s Spitzer infrared detectors.
Much as I would like to visit, I’ll have to content myself with one day visiting Hawaii’s green beach (composed primarily of olivine crystals; scroll down.)
Diamond Star
Posted by Danielle in News & Happenings, Perspectives on May 27, 2011
Old news (but good news): meet the star with a 10 billion trillion trillion carat diamond at its core! I’ve been fascinated with the thought of diamond-core stars and planets ever since first reading 2010. Just last year, studies indicated possible carbon-rich, diamond-core planets; for those of you on a budget, there’s a cubic zirconia (and/or zircon) star that will suit any piece of cosmic-sized jewelry. Both cubic zirconia and zircon are diamond simulants, CZ being the most popular.
You might ask why I’m stuck on diamonds, seemingly out of the blue — the truth is, I’ve been saving this post up. I am just finishing Diamonds & Diamond Grading, as part of my Graduate Gemologist coursework, and today is my first final exam in approximately 7.5 years. I have been studying THE SPARKLIES at great length and thus ends my weak attempt at a tie-in between my two favorite subjects: SPACE, and SPARKLY ROCKS.
Incidentally, the reason you don’t see more star-shaped diamonds — whole, one-piece stars, I mean — is because so much of the rough carat weight is lost in cutting. An efficient shape, it is not.
Space Craft
Needle felted Hubble Servicing Mission 4 EVA 4, by FlyingJenny
Part two of my NASA Etsy contest feature, this first image is a needle-felted rendition of Hubble Servicing Mission 4, EVA 4 by the highly talented FlyingJenny. Beautiful work!
This is a needle felted rendition of a scene from the Hubble Servicing Mission 4, which took place in May of 2009. Specifically this wool sculpture shows the fourth Extra Vehicular Activity, or spacewalk, of that mission. This spacewalk was conducted by astronauts Mike Massimino (the first astronaut to send a tweet from space, also known as @Astro_Mike) and Mike Good, whose nickname is Bueno. One of the memorable moments of this EVA was when one of Hubble’s handrails was in the way and they were unable to remove it. After much deliberation and testing on the ground, Mike Massimino was given the okay to forcibly break off the handrail- as people all over the world watched with great interest.
Next up, an unusual (but AWESOME) decoupage necklace:
The stars my destination..., by ergane
Wear your deep pride for the first walk on the moon (and Apollo space missions!) with this, “The stars my destination” decoupaged necklace…Postage and vintage dictionary paper were applied by me, and my fingers, onto vintage watch crystals, and a few watch parts (disguised as satellites) are also part of this delicious fest of aqua and pearls and moon beams…reach for the sky, cowboy!
Finally, slightly more subtle, a lovely starry side-table:
Northstar Table, by colleenwhiteley
What I love about this table is that, once you locate the North Star and press it, a secret drawer is revealed:
The circular brass inlay represents the stars in the night sky on the evening of the first moon landing, and identifying the “North Star” is the key to opening the hidden drawer.
Northstar Table, by colleenwhiteley
Don’t forget to vote today in the NASA Etsy contest!
Brother Sun, Sister Moon
I’ve had gemstones on the brain today (more so than normal, I mean), after reading about the $45.6M sale of this Fancy Intense Pink diamond at Sotheby’s on Tuesday (if you like sparkly things, watch the video. SPARK. LY. THINGS.) Annnnnyway, I keep going back to Etsy to visit this stunning planetary ring, so I might as well post it so I can continue to admire it long after it sells. Really, it merits going to the listing and looking through all the photos, as every angle has lovely and interesting detail.
This ring is the penultimate in the evolution of a ten year design process. In order to achieve a “Celestial” look, I must make this ring the hard way. Each dot or “star” is actually a small hole bored through the Ti ring itself and then riveted with Fine Silver. Silver, being the whitest of all metals, is a great stand-in for stars as well as the perfect contrast to the gunmetal gray of Titanium. The Yellow Diamond Sun and the White Diamond Moon are each set into metals of opposing colors to reflect the yin/yang nature of the universe as I see it. The planets are each represented by historically corresponding metals; 14K Pink Gold stands for the planets of Mercury and Mars; Fine Silver stands for Venus and Jupiter, and 18K yellow Gold represents Saturn. This ring is the best example, to date, of what I have been striving for, a subdued astronomical look of many small and even smaller dots punctuated by different metals as planets in a sea of stars.
Kudos to Patrick Burt for his stunning creation!
-
About Silver Rockets
This blog celebrates space exploration, human spaceflight and the heavens, through lots and lots ofimages.
My name is Danielle Signor, and I am a space cadet. STS-133 NASA Tweetup Attendee!
This is a blog, NOT A SHOP. Click the images for their source or purchase link, if available.
-
Subscribe
-
Danielle Recommends...
-
Elsewhere on the Web
