Astronomy Picture of the Day: 01/08/14 - NGC 2170

NGC 2170 is a spectacular nebular region located in the constellation Monoceros. Part of this beauty lies in the fact that it is a region bearing many different types of nebulae. We have a reflection nebula that is surrounded by other blueish reflection nebulae, black absorption nebulae and a red emission region. Areas such as this tend to be hot beds for star formation activity, which gives us plenty of eye candy to look at.

Speaking of star formation activity; this region lies on the edge of a molecular cloud, which is known as Mon R2. It can be found close in the sky to the Orion nebula, but it is currently estimated to be almost twice as far away (making it around 2,400 light-years from Earth).

NGC 2170 is thought to span about 80 light-years across. Just to give you a sense of how incredibly large this is, our solar system is sometimes estimated to be about 15 light-hours across (one light year extends 9.5 trillion kilometers [or about 6 trillion miles]) The distance that separates our solar system from our closest neighbor (in the Alpha Centauri star system) is about 4.37 light-years. That number only says how long it would take a photon traveling from the sun at the speed of light to reach it, not a space ship or one of the voyager probes (it would take thousands of years to journey to the closest star, Proxima Centauri, going at top speed). In this stellar nebula, it takes light 80 YEARS to travel from one side to the other. Very large indeed!

Sources & Further Reading: http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/apod-ngc-2170/

Image Credit: Adam Block, Mt. Lemmon SkyCenter, U. Arizona

Astronomy Picture of the Day: 12/17/13 - The Helix Nebula

While the most stunning deep space image that has ever been taken is debatable (*cough* sh2–239 *cough*), in my not-so-humble opinion, this image of NGC 7293 (also known as the Helix nebula, or the Eye of God) is by far one of the creepiest. Its resemblance to a human eye is so uncanny, I can"t resist making a silly joke about how Santa Claus is a 4 dimensional creature that obviously lives here on his off-time ("He sees you when you"re sleeping. He knows when you"re awake. He knows if you"ve been bad or good. So be good for goodness sake.")

On a more serious note, The Helix Nebula is located approximately 700 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Aquarius. It"s a planetary nebula by designation, which means the nebula was born following the death of a medium-mass, or sun-like star. Before the star died, leaving behind a dense core called a white dwarf, the star shed the remainder of its outer envelope of gasses off into space, thus forming a nebula. As the material continues to expand outward from the central star, it will eventually disperse, rendering the likeness to the human eye obsolete.

Overall, the nebula extends about 2.5 light-years across. Meaning, it"s larger in size than our entire solar system. In fact, light could make it half of the way from the sun to the sun"s nearest neighbor (in the Alpha Centauri star system) before it could travel from one side of the Helix nebula to the other one.

Sources, Further Reading & Additional Resources: http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/astronomy-picture-of-the-day-121713-the-helix-nebula/

Image Credit: Optical: NASA, WIYN, NOAO, ESA, Hubble Helix Nebula Team, M. Meixner (STScI), & T. A. Rector (NRAO) Infrared: ESO/VISTA/J. Emerson (Acknowledgment: Cambridge Astronomical Survey Unit) Ultraviolet: NASA/AP