Astronomy Picture of the Day: 12/26/13 - The Snowflake Cluster

And in yet another holiday-themed image, we come across a quaint little cluster of stars - aptly called the Snowflake Cluster - hanging out in the neighborhood of the famous cone nebula. The pair are located approximately 2,500 light-years from Earth in the Monoceros constellation.



The region is populated by a large number of stars that are currently in the process of forming. When viewed at non-optical wavelengths, the protostars appear as pink or red tiny, patchy dots in the sky -- like snow... very deadly snow. In any event, now you know where it got its name! Too bad that when the protostars arise from their cocoon - during the transition into main-sequence mode - their impact on the region will be seen and felt throughout.

References: http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/apod-the-snowflake-cluster/

Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, P. S. Teixeira (CfA)

Astronomy Photo of the Day: 12/18/13 - The Circinus Galaxy

Chandra - along with ESO"s Very Large Telescope Array - spied a bright, variable supernova blast located in a galaxy 12 million light-years away. This image is a composite showing the central region of the galaxy in question, which is typically referred to as the Circinus galaxy.

In the lower right hand corner of the image, the blue source of light is the supernova blast itself (designated "SN 1996cr"). It was originally discovered back in 2001 (though the light from the actual explosion arrived more than a decade before it was even discovered). Despite there being so many stars in the night sky, it"s pretty infrequent that we observe these celestial events in independent galaxies. By some estimations, one should expect to see one supernova explosion once every 50 years per galaxy! The last verified explosion in the Milky Way was observed back in 1604 by the famed astronomer, Johannes Kepler (many other contenders have been noted in recent years though).

Furthermore, some of you may recall the famous supernova SN 1987A, which occurred in a galaxy approximately 160,000 light-years away -- It"s quite similar to supernova SN 1996cr in many ways, but SN 1996cr spits out almost 1000 times more radio and x-ray emissions.

References & Additional Reading: http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/astronomy-photo-of-the-day-121813-the-circinus-galaxy/

Image Credit: X-ray (NASA/CXC/Columbia/F.Bauer et al); Optical (NASA/STScI/ UMD/A.Wilson et al.)