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: 01/02/14 - The Lagoon Nebula

This is the Lagoon Nebula, which is also known as M8. This fascinating object can be found within the constellation Sagittarius about 5,000 light-years away. This image stretches about 60-light-years.

The Lagoon Nebula is a stellar nursery responsible for cranking out the next generation of stars in the Milky Way. Near the center of the nebula, you can see the star cluster NGC 6530. This open cluster is currently carving out the Lagoon with solar winds from the hot young stars. Scattered throughout the lagoon, you can see little cocoons shielding more new star systems from view.

To read the full article, see: http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/astronomy-picture-of-the-day-010214-the-lagoon-nebula/

Image Credit: Ignacio Diaz Bobillo

Astronomers Find Manatee in Space:

Astronomers found a bright blue manatee hovering in the cosmos. Covering a distance of some 700 light-years, this celestial beast makes Earth"s manatees look like...well, quite frankly, there is no apt comparison. The manatees found on Earth typically measure just over 13 feet (3.9m) in length; this celestial mammoth stretches more than 4.1 quadrillion miles.

Of course, a creature this size would quickly deplete Earth"s oceans of all life. Fortunately, the National Wildlife Federation doesn’t have to worry because this manatee isn’t a carnivore or even a herbivore. It’s a nebula.

Get more amazing facts about this fantastic structure at:
http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/astronomers-find-manatee-in-space/

Image:
NASA

How are stars born? How do they die?

You’ve probably been told that staring directly at the Sun is bad for your eyes. However, we don’t have to have uncomfortable staring contests with the Stars to try and get them to give up their secrets! After years and years of research, scientists have managed to find out quite a bit about the oh-so-secretive stars without losing a staring contest.

Firstly, stars go through the same process that we do in the sense that they are born, live, and then die. The difference is that they do it far more dramatically, and take a much longer time doing it. Depending on the mass of the star, the lifetime can range from a few million years to trillions of years! So let"s take a moment to get to know a little something about the lives of some of the oldest inhabitants of the universe: STARS.

Learn about the lives of stars at:
http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/how-are-stars-born-how-do-they-die/

Image:
NASA

Astronomy Picture of the Day: 12/24/13 - The Christmas Ornament Nebula

Happy Holidays from those of us here on the FQTQ team. To get in the festive spirit, we thought we would showcase one of the "christmassy" nebulae out there. This particular one, curiously dubbed the "Christmas Ornament nebula" (also known as NGC 5189), is a planetary nebula that can be found approximately 1,780 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Musca.

The planetary nebula stage of stellar evolution is one of the last few transitions a sun-like star experiences as the star begins to die. As the process of death culminates - resulting in the destruction of anything too close by - stars of this type begin "bleeding" out material into the interstellar medium. This material is subsequently shaped by a number of different phenomena (like stellar winds), thus forming a brilliant nebula similar to the one seen here.

Incredibly (and luckily for us), no two planetary nebulae have looked identical visually.

References & Further Reading: http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/apod-christmas-ornament-nebula/

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and G. Bacon (STScI)

Astronomy Photo of the Day: 12/22/2013

This eerie bubble looks like a massive plume of fog rolling across the cosmos, but don’t be fooled, this beast won’t create a nice chill on a warm evening. The smoke-like material is actually rather hot. Amazingly hot, in fact. That’s because the sphere is composed of gas that was cast off from a star that is several hundred thousand times more luminous and around 45 times more massive than our Sun.

Learn about this amazing image at:
http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/astronomy-photo-of-the-day-12222013/

Image:
NASA

Astronomy Picture of the day; 11/24/13 - NGC 7027

It"s absolutely fascinating to me that nebulae that form in the same fashion (also from the same general size and type of star) can create structures that look absolutely nothing alike. This is a great example of such, a planetary nebula, located approximately 3,000 light-years from Earth (in the Cygnus constellation). These nebulae form after sun-like stars exhaust their supply of hydrogen found in their core, causing the stars to balloon in size whilst the process of helium consumption begins. Throughout this process, the outer-layers of material peel off (similar to an onion), forming a planetary nebula (a fate our sun will experience eventually.).

Sources & Additional Reading: http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/astronomy-picture-of-the-day-112413-ngc-7027/

Image by Arnie Rosner (Additional Credit: W. B. Latter (SIRTF /Caltech) et al., NICMOS, HST, NASA)