2025 June 23

W5: Pillars of Star Formation
* Image Credit: NASA, WISE, IRSA
https://irsa.ipac.caltech.edu/frontpage/
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/wide-field-infrared-survey-explorer-wise/
http://www.nasa.gov/;
* Processing & Copyright : Francesco Antonucci
https://app.astrobin.com/u/FrankAntonucci#gallery

Explanation:
How do stars form? Images of the star forming region W5 like those in the infrared by NASA's Wide Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE, later NEOWISE) satellite provide clear clues with indications that massive stars near the center of empty cavities are older than stars near the edges. A likely reason for this is that the older stars in the center are actually triggering the formation of the younger edge stars. The triggered star formation occurs when hot outflowing gas compresses cooler gas into knots dense enough to gravitationally contract into stars. In the featured scientifically colored infrared image, spectacular pillars left slowly evaporating from the hot outflowing gas provide further visual clues. W5 is also known as Westerhout 5 (W5) and IC 1848. Together with IC 1805, the nebulas form a complex region of star formation popularly dubbed the Heart and Soul Nebulas. The featured image highlights a part of W5 spanning about 2,000 light years that is rich in star forming pillars. W5 lies about 6,500 light years away toward the constellation of Cassiopeia.

** Further links will be added soon

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250623.html

#space #nebula #astrophotography #photography #science #nature #NASA

2025 June 26

The Seagull Nebula
* Image Credit & Copyright: Timothy Martin
https://app.astrobin.com/u/AccidentalAstronomers#gallery

Explanation:
An interstellar expanse of glowing gas and obscuring dust presents a bird-like visage to astronomers from planet Earth, suggesting its popular moniker, the Seagull Nebula. This broadband portrait of the cosmic bird covers a 3.5-degree wide swath across the plane of the Milky Way, in the direction of Sirius, alpha star of the constellation of the Big Dog (Canis Major). The bright head of the Seagull Nebula is cataloged as IC 2177, a compact, dusty emission and reflection nebula with embedded massive star HD 53367. The larger emission region, encompassing objects with other catalog designations, is Likely part of an extensive shell structure swept up by successive supernova explosions. The notable bluish arc below and right of center is a bow shock from runaway star FN Canis Majoris. Dominated by the reddish glow of atomic hydrogen, this complex of interstellar gas and dust clouds with other stars of the Canis Majoris OB1 association spans over 200 light-years at the Seagull Nebula's estimated 3,800 light-year distance.
https://app.astrobin.com/u/AccidentalAstronomers?i=mnrp5s&r=E#gallery
https://astrobackyard.com/seagull-nebula/

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap161215.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FN_Canis_Majoris
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canis_Major
https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2019A%26A...628A..44F/abstract

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250626.html

#space #nebula #astrophotography #photography #science #astronomy #nature #NASA

2025 July 5

Ou4: The Giant Squid Nebula
* Image Credit & Copyright: Massimo Di Fusco
https://app.astrobin.com/u/massimo.difusco#gallery

Explanation:
Difficult to capture, this mysterious, squid-shaped interstellar cloud spans nearly three full moons in planet Earth's sky. Discovered in 2011 by French astro-imager Nicolas Outters, the Squid Nebula's bipolar shape is distinguished here by the telltale blue emission from doubly ionized oxygen atoms. Though apparently surrounded by the reddish hydrogen emission region Sh2-129, the true distance and nature of the Squid Nebula have been difficult to determine. Still, one investigation suggests Ou4 really does lie within Sh2-129 some 2,300 light-years away. Consistent with that scenario, the cosmic squid would represent a spectacular outflow of material driven by a triple system of hot, massive stars, cataloged as HR8119, seen near the center of the nebula. If so, this truly giant squid nebula would physically be over 50 light-years across.
https://app.astrobin.com/i/hmtykv?r=0

http://outters.fr/wp/?page_id=50
https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2012RMxAA..48..223A/abstract

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250705.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebulium
https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014A%26A...570A.105C/abstract

http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/orbits.html
https://in-the-sky.org/data/object.php?id=TYC3965-880-1#google_vignette

#space #nebula #astrophotography #photography #science #astronomy #physics #nature #NASA

2023 April 16

M2-9: Wings of a Butterfly Nebula
* Image Credit: Hubble Legacy Archive, NASA, ESA
https://hla.stsci.edu/
https://www.nasa.gov/
https://www.esa.int/;
* Processing: Judy Schmidt

Explanation:
Are stars better appreciated for their art after they die? Actually, stars usually create their most artistic displays as they die. In the case of low-mass stars like our Sun and M2-9 pictured here, the stars transform themselves from normal stars to white dwarfs by casting off their outer gaseous envelopes. The expended gas frequently forms an impressive display called a planetary nebula that fades gradually over thousands of years. M2-9, a butterfly planetary nebula 2100 light-years away shown in representative colors, has wings that tell a strange but incomplete tale. In the center, two stars orbit inside a gaseous disk 10 times the orbit of Pluto. The expelled envelope of the dying star breaks out from the disk creating the bipolar appearance. Much remains unknown about the physical processes that cause and shape planetary nebulae.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/geckzilla/9732993912/sizes/l/in/photostream/
https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2011A%26A...529A..43C/abstract

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetary_nebula
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap000910.html

https://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/cosmic_distance.html
https://lws.gsfc.nasa.gov/index.html

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230416.html

#space #nebula #astrophotography #photography #science #astronomy #physics #nature #NASA #ESA

Planetary Nebula

A planetary nebula is a region of cosmic gas and dust formed from the cast-off outer layers of a dying star. Despite their name, planetary nebulae have nothing to do with planets.

When stars with an intermediate mass (greater than 80% of the Sun’s mass, but less than eight times its mass) die, they expand to form red giants. The dying star will continue to expel gas, whilst simultaneously the remaining core of the star contracts and temporarily begins to radiate energy again. This energy causes the expelled gas to ionise, meaning that the atoms and molecules in the gas become charged and begin to emit light. The cast-off glowing gas is known as a planetary nebula. Therefore, planetary nebulae are classified as emission nebulae, and are entirely unrelated to planets. The misnomer came about because of a historical misclassification. 250 years ago, astronomers thought they were looking at gas planets when they observed the colourful spectacle of planetary nebulae through their less powerful telescopes. Planetary nebulae only last for about 20 000 years, making them a very short-lived part of the stellar life cycle.

Throughout the years, Hubble has studied and imaged varying shapes and colours of these intricate planetary nebulae, the different colours arising from different, often newly created, chemical elements, showing that the final stages of the lives of stars are more complex than once thought. You can explore Hubble’s beautiful collection of planetary nebula images here.

Using Hubble, astronomers caught a rare glimpse of the nebula Hen 3-1357, nicknamed the Stingray nebula, fading precipitously over just the past two decades. Even though the Universe is constantly changing, most processes are too slow to be observed within a human lifespan.
[...]
https://esahubble.org/wordbank/planetary-nebula/

Credit:
NASA, ESA and the Hubble SM4 ERO Team

#space #nebula #astrophotography #photography #science #astronomy #physics #nature #NASA #ESA

2006 June 6

NGC 6164: A Bipolar Emission Nebula
* Credit & Copyright: Gemini Obs., AURA, NSF
http://www.gemini.edu/
https://www.aura-astronomy.org/
https://www.nsf.gov/

Explanation:
How did a star form this beautiful nebula? In the middle of emission nebula NGC 6164-5 is an unusually massive star nearing the end of its life. The star, visible in the center of the above image and catalogued as HD 148937, is so hot that the ultraviolet light it emits heats up gas that surrounds it. That gas was likely thrown off from the star, possibly by its fast rotation, like a rotating lawn sprinkler. Expelled material might have been further channeled by the magnetic field of the star, creating the symmetric shape of the bipolar nebula. Several cometary knots of gas are also visible on the lower left. NGC 6164-5 spans about four light years and is located about 4,000 light years away toward the southern constellation Norma.
https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1985PASP...97..780F/abstract

http://maps.seds.org/Stars_en/Fig/norma.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light-year

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap060606.html

#space #nebula #astrophotography #photography #science #astronomy #physics #nature #NASA #ESA

Sometimes the names of objects are deeply misleading. For example, starfish are not actually fish (they are echinoderms) and guinea pigs are not related to pigs in any way (they are rodents). Similarly, planetary nebulas have nothing to do with planets. They were misnamed when scientists looking through small telescopes in the 19th century thought that these objects looked like planets.

Today, astronomers know that a planetary nebula actually represents a phase that stars like our Sun experience after they use up much of their fuel. After cooling and expanding through a “red giant” phase when it begins to expel its outer layers, such a star leaves behind a type of dense and smaller star called a white dwarf. The previously jettisoned shells of gas remain for a relatively short time in cosmic terms — tens of thousands of years — before dissipating into space. Meanwhile they are illuminated and energized by the white dwarf at the center of the system. This will happen to our Sun, but not for another 5 billion years or so.

NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory contributes to the understanding of planetary nebulas by studying the hottest and most energetic processes still at work in these beautiful objects. X-ray data from Chandra reveal winds being driven away from the white dwarf so quickly (i.e., millions of miles per hour) that they create shock waves during collisions with slower-moving material previously ejected by the star. Chandra’s exceptional vision in X-rays contributes to the understanding of this brief, yet important, stage of stars’ lives.

This gallery contains a half a dozen planetary nebulas that have been observed both by Chandra and NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, with the latter detecting the delicate-looking structures of gas that have been expelled from the star. [...]
+ Read further in ALT-Text

https://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2021/pne/

#space #nebula #astrophotography #photography #science #astronomy #physics #nature #NASA #ESA

A planetary nebula is a phase of stellar evolution that the sun should experience several billion years from now, when it expands to become a red giant. It will then shed most of its outer layers, leaving behind a hot core that contracts to form a dense white dwarf star. A wind from the hot core will ram into the ejected atmosphere, creating beautiful, shell-like structures seen with optical telescopes. This gallery shows four planetary nebulas from the first systematic survey of such objects in the solar neighborhood made with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. X-ray emission from Chandra is colored purple and optical emission from the Hubble Space Telescope is colored red, green and blue. The diffuse X-ray emission is caused by shock waves as the wind collides with the ejected atmosphere.

https://chandra.harvard.edu/resources/animations/pne.html#anim_331

#space #nebula #astrophotography #photography #science #astronomy #physics #nature #NASA #EsaPekkaSalonen

2006 March 26

Doomed Star Eta Carinae
* Credit: J. Morse (Arizona State U.), K. Davidson (U. Minnesota) et al., WFPC2, HST, NASA
https://www.asu.edu/research
https://cse.umn.edu/physics
https://www.stsci.edu/
https://www.stsci.edu/hst
http://www.nasa.gov/

Explanation:
Eta Carinae may be about to explode. But no one knows when - it may be next year, it may be one million years from now. Eta Carinae's mass - about 100 times greater than our Sun - makes it an excellent candidate for a full blown supernova. Historical records do show that about 150 years ago Eta Carinae underwent an unusual outburst that made it one of the brightest stars in the southern sky. Eta Carinae, in the Keyhole Nebula, is the only star currently thought to emit natural LASER light. This image, taken in 1996, resulted from sophisticated image-processing procedures designed to bring out new details in the unusual nebula that surrounds this rogue star. Now clearly visible are two distinct lobes, a hot central region, and strange radial streaks. The lobes are filled with lanes of gas and dust which absorb the blue and ultraviolet light emitted near the center. The streaks remain unexplained. Will these clues tell us how the nebula was formed? Will they better indicate when Eta Carinae will explode?
https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/objects/heapow/archive/stars/etacar_pspc_19990525.html

https://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?bibcode=1995ApJ...445L.121C

https://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?bibcode=1995ApJ...441L..77F

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap060326.html

#space #nebula #astrophotography #photography #science #astronomy #physics #nature #NASA #esa

2003 January 13

The Dumbbell Nebula in Hydrogen and Oxygen
* Credit & Copyright: George Jacoby (NOAO) et al., WIYN, AURA, NOAO, NSF
https://www.nsf.gov/

Explanation:
The first hint of what will become of our Sun was discovered inadvertently in 1764. At that time, Charles Messier was compiling a list of "annoying" diffuse objects not to be confused with "interesting" comets. The 27th object on Messier's list, now known as M27 or the Dumbbell Nebula, is a planetary nebula, the type of nebula our Sun will produce when nuclear fusion stops in its core. M27 is one of the brightest planetary nebulae on the sky, and can be seen in the constellation Vulpecula with binoculars. It takes light about 1000 years to reach us from M27, shown above, digitally sharpened, in three isolated colors emitted by hydrogen and oxygen. Understanding the physics and significance of M27 was well beyond 18th century science. Even today, many things remain mysterious about bipolar planetary nebula like M27, including the physical mechanism that expels a low-mass star's gaseous outer-envelope, leaving an X-ray hot white dwarf.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap030113.html

#space #nebula #astrophotography #photography #science #astronomy #physics #nature #NASA #ESA

Helix Nebula – Unraveling at the Seams

NASA

Oct 04, 2012

A dying star is throwing a cosmic tantrum in this combined image from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope and the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX), which NASA has lent to the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. In death, the star’s dusty outer layers are unraveling into space, glowing from the intense ultraviolet radiation being pumped out by the hot stellar core.
This object, called the Helix nebula, lies 650 light-years away, in the constellation of Aquarius. Also known by the catalog number NGC 7293, it is a typical example of a class of objects called planetary nebulae. Discovered in the 18th century, these cosmic works of art were erroneously named for their resemblance to gas-giant planets.
Planetary nebulae are actually the remains of stars that once looked a lot like our sun. These stars spend most of their lives turning hydrogen into helium in massive runaway nuclear fusion reactions in their cores. In fact, this process of fusion provides all the light and heat that we get from our sun. Our sun will blossom into a planetary nebula when it dies in about five billion years.
When the hydrogen fuel for the fusion reaction runs out, the star turns to helium for a fuel source, burning it into an even heavier mix of carbon, nitrogen and oxygen. Eventually, the helium will also be exhausted, and the star dies, puffing off its outer gaseous layers and leaving behind the tiny, hot, dense core, called a white dwarf. The white dwarf is about the size of Earth, but has a mass very close to that of the original star; in fact, a teaspoon of a white dwarf would weigh as much as a few elephants!
The glow from planetary nebulae is particularly intriguing as it appears surprisingly similar across a broad swath of the spectrum, from ultraviolet to [...]
https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/helix-nebula-unraveling-seams/

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech

#space #nebula #astrophotography #photography #science #astronomy #physics #nature #NASA #ESA

<<_>>
[...]
The Helix remains recognizable at any of these wavelengths, but the combination shown here highlights some subtle differences.
The intense ultraviolet radiation from the white dwarf heats up the expelled layers of gas, which shine brightly in the infrared. GALEX has picked out the ultraviolet light pouring out of this system, shown throughout the nebula in blue, while Spitzer has snagged the detailed infrared signature of the dust and gas in yellow A portion of the extended field beyond the nebula, which was not observed by Spitzer, is from NASA’s all-sky Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). The white dwarf star itself is a tiny white pinprick right at the center of the nebula.
The brighter purple circle in the very center is the combined ultraviolet and infrared glow of a dusty disk circling the white dwarf (the disk itself is too small to be resolved). This dust was most likely kicked up by comets that survived the death of their star.
Before the star died, its comets, and possibly planets, would have orbited the star in an orderly fashion. When the star ran out of hydrogen to burn, and blew off its outer layers, the icy bodies and outer planets would have been tossed about and into each other, kicking up an ongoing cosmic dust storm. Any inner planets in the system would have burned up or been swallowed as their dying star expanded.
https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/helix-nebula-unraveling-seams/

Helix Nebula 3D model credit: INAF/Sal Orlando

[...] This 3D model is an impression derived from data obtained with several optical filters by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope.
https://chandra.harvard.edu/deadstar/helix.html

#space #nebula #astrophotography #photography #science #astronomy #physics #nature #NASA #ESA

April 16, 1996

Cometary Knots in the Helix Nebula
* Credit: R. O'Dell and K. Handron (Rice University), NASA
https://www.rice.edu/
http://www.nasa.gov/

Explanation:
Four hundred fifty light-years from Earth, the wind from a dying, sun-like star produced a planetary nebula popularly known as the Helix. While exploring the Helix's gaseous envelope with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), astronomers discovered indications of 1,000s of striking "cometary knots" like those shown above. So called because of their resemblence to comets, they are actually much larger - their heads are several billion miles across (roughly twice the size of the our solar system itself) while their tails, pointing radially away from the central star, stretch over 100 billion miles. Previously known from ground based observations, the sheer number of cometary knots found in this single nebula is astonishing. What caused them to form? Hot, fast moving shells of nebular gas overrunning cooler, denser, slower shells ejected by the star during an earlier expansion may produce these droplet-like condensations as the two shells intermix and fragment. An intriguing possibility is that instead of dissipating over time, these objects, could collapse and form pluto-like bodies. If so, these icy worlds created near the end of a star's life, would be numerous in our galaxy.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap960416.html

#space #nebula #astrophotography #photography #science #astronomy #physics #nature #NASA #ESA

This sonification (a translation of data from image into sound) depicts the optical data from the Hubble Space Telescope of the Helix Nebula. The sonification scans from left to right, where red light is assigned lower pitches and blue light is assigned higher pitches. Just as the frequencies of light increase from red to blue, frequencies of sound increase from low to high pitches.

Credit:
NASA, NOAO, ESA, the Hubble Helix Nebula Team, M. Meixner (STScI), & T.A. Rector (NRAO); Sonification: SYSTEM Sounds (M. Russo, A. Santaguida)

#space #nebula #astrophotography #photography #science #astronomy #physics #nature #NASA #ESA

"With this miracle of the universe, I have to think again and again of the beautiful old rose varieties when they fade in late summer and hold their petals with their last strength, and release their innermost ones for pollination. Therefore, let's approach slowly and carefully from the outside to the inside"

* Image Credits:

** top left:
+ Bray Falls
https://www.instagram.com/astrofalls/

** bottom left:
+ Taavi Niittee
https://app.astrobin.com/u/Astronoomiaklubi#gallery

** top right:
+ R. Corradi
https://www.ing.iac.es/
https://www.not.iac.es/general/photos/

** downright:
Data:
+ Michael Joner
http://wmo.byu.edu/
+ Romano Corradi
https://www.iac.es/
https://hla.stsci.edu/
Processing:
+ Robert Gendler
http://www.robgendlerastropics.com/

The Cat's Eye Nebula (also known as NGC 6543 and Caldwell 6) is a planetary nebula in the northern constellation of Draco, discovered by William Herschel on February 15, 1786. It was the first planetary nebula whose spectrum was investigated by the English amateur astronomer William Huggins, demonstrating that planetary nebulae were gaseous and not stellar in nature. Structurally, the object has had high-resolution images by the Hubble Space Telescope revealing knots, jets, bubbles and complex arcs, being illuminated by the central hot planetary nebula nucleus (PNN). It is a well-studied object that has been observed from radio to X-ray wavelengths. At the centre of the Cat's Eye Nebula is a dying Wolf–Rayet star, the sort of which can be seen in the Webb Telescope's image of WR 124. The Cat's Eye Nebula's central star shines at magnitude +11.4. Hubble Space Telescope images show a sort of dart board pattern of concentric rings emanating outwards from the centre. Text from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat's_Eye_Nebula

#space #nebula #astrophotography #photography #science #astronomy #physics #nature #NASA #ESA

2024 January 7

The Cat's Eye Nebula in Optical and X-ray
* Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble Legacy Archive; Chandra X-ray Obs.
https://www.nasa.gov/
https://www.esa.int/
https://hla.stsci.edu/
https://chandra.harvard.edu/about/;
* Processing & Copyright: Rudy Pohl
https://app.astrobin.com/u/Rudy_Pohl#gallery

Explanation:
To some it looks like a cat's eye. To others, perhaps like a giant cosmic conch shell. It is actually one of the brightest and most highly detailed planetary nebula known, composed of gas expelled in the brief yet glorious phase near the end of life of a Sun-like star. This nebula's dying central star may have produced the outer circular concentric shells by shrugging off outer layers in a series of regular convulsions. The formation of the beautiful, complex-yet-symmetric inner structures, however, is not well understood. The featured image is a composite of a digitally sharpened Hubble Space Telescope image with X-ray light captured by the orbiting Chandra Observatory. The exquisite floating space statue spans over half a light-year across. Of course, gazing into this Cat's Eye, humanity may well be seeing the fate of our sun, destined to enter its own planetary nebula phase of evolution ... in about 5 billion years.
https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2012ApJ...759L..28P/abstract
https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2004A%26A...417..637C/abstract
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap011003.html

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap240107.html

#space #nebula #astrophotography #photography #science #astronomy #physics #nature #NASA #ESA

2022 July 10

In the Center of the Cat's Eye Nebula
* Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble, HLA
https://www.nasa.gov/
http://www.esa.int/
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/story/index.html
https://hla.stsci.edu/;
* Reprocessing & Copyright: Raul Villaverde
https://www.flickr.com/photos/113243238@N08/

Explanation:
Three thousand light-years away, a dying star throws off shells of glowing gas. This image from the Hubble Space Telescope reveals the Cat's Eye Nebula (NGC 6543), to be one of the most complex planetary nebulae known. Spanning half a light-year, the features seen in the Cat's Eye are so complex that astronomers suspect the bright central object may actually be a binary star system. The term planetary nebula, used to describe this general class of objects, is misleading. Although these objects may appear round and planet-like in small telescopes, high resolution images with large telescopes reveal them to be stars surrounded by cocoons of gas blown off in the late stages of stellar evolution. Gazing into this Cat's Eye, astronomers may well be seeing more than detailed structure, they may be seeing the fate of our Sun, destined to enter its own planetary nebula phase of evolution ... in about 5 billion years.
https://astronomy.swin.edu.au/cosmos/p/Planetary+Nebulae

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220710.html

#space #nebula #astrophotography #photography #science #astronomy #physics #nature #NASA #ESA

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has captured a stunning image of the Cat's Eye Nebula, one of the most complex planetary nebulae known, with its intricate structure of concentric rings and high-density knots.
In this video, Dr. Ken Carpenter delves into the beauty of this cosmic jewel and discusses the critical role Hubble plays in unraveling the secrets of stellar evolution and the lifecycle of stars.

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has captured a stunning image of the Cat's Eye Nebula, one of the most complex planetary nebulae known, with its intricate structure of concentric rings and high-density knots.
In this video, Dr. Ken Carpenter delves into the beauty of this cosmic jewel and discusses the critical role Hubble plays in unraveling the secrets of stellar evolution and the lifecycle of stars.

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Producer, Director & Editor: James Leigh

Director of Photography: James Ball

Executive Producers: James Leigh & Matthew Duncan

Production & Post: Origin Films

Video Credits:
Hubble Space Telescope Animation:
ESA/Hubble - M. Kornmesser & L. L. Christensen

Music Credits:
"Transcode" by Lee Groves [PRS], and Peter George Marett [PRS] via Universal Production Music

#space #nebula #astrophotography #photography #science #astronomy #physics #nature #NASA #ESA

James Webb Telescope Reveals Enigmatic Rings of Planetary Nebula NGC 1514

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has once again opened new windows into the cosmos, providing astronomers with unprecedented observations of a planetary nebula, NGC 1514, also known as the Crystal Ball Nebula. This remarkable nebula, located approximately 1,500 light years away from Earth, has intrigued scientists for years due to its distinct and puzzling features. New observations from JWST, published on February 28 on the arXiv pre-print server, offer a fresh perspective on the nebula’s enigmatic rings, which have now become one of the most intriguing features of this nebula. [...]

"In mid-April, I dedicated a more detailed thread of several exciting posts to this particularly beautiful Nebula, which by the way is not hourglass shaped in visible light and is therefore also called Crystal Ball Nebula. The link below leads to this thread about NGC 1541."

https://defcon.social/@grobi/114340294049034256

#space #nebula #astrophotography #photography #science #astronomy #physics #nature #NASA #ESA

"In visible light, NGC 1514 appears to us in this form. Are we dealing with a quick-change artist or a universal Camelion?? Just kidding .."

NGC 1514
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

NGC 1514, also known as the Crystal Ball Nebula, is a planetary nebula in the zodiac constellation of Taurus, positioned to the north of the star Psi Tauri along the constellation border with Perseus. Distance to the nebula is 455 pc, according to its Gaia DR3 parallax.

It was discovered by William Herschel on November 13, 1790, describing it as

"a most singular phenomenon"

and forcing him to rethink his ideas on the construction of the heavens. Up until this point Herschel was convinced that all nebulae consisted of masses of stars too remote to resolve, but now here was a single star
"surrounded with a faintly luminous atmosphere".

He concluded:

"Our judgement I may venture to say, will be, that the nebulosity about the star is not of a starry nature."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Herschel

This is a double-shell nebula that is described as,
"a bright roundish amorphous PN"
with a radius of around 65″ and a faint halo that has a radius of 90″. It consists of an outer shell, an inner shell, and bright blobs. The inner shell appears to be distorted, but was likely originally spherical. An alternative description is of

"lumpy nebula composed of numerous small bubbles"
with a somewhat filamentary structure in the outer shell.

Infrared observations show a huge region of dust surrounds the planetary nebula, spanning 8.5 ly (2.6 pc). There is also a pair of rings forming what appears to be a diabolo-like structure, similar to those found in MyCn 18, but these are extremely faint and only visible in the mid-infrared.
[...]
>> more about NGC 1514:
https://defcon.social/@grobi/114340294049034256

* Image Credit and processing:
Göran Nilsson & The Liverpool Telescope
https://app.astrobin.com/u/gorann#gallery
https://telescope.livjm.ac.uk/

#space #nebula #astrophotography #photography #science #astronomy #physics #nature #NASA #ESA

2025 July 9

A Beautiful Trifid
* Image Credit & Copyright: Alessandro Cipolat Bares
https://www.flickr.com/photos/astrobares/

Explanation:
The beautiful Trifid Nebula is a cosmic study in contrasts. Also known as M20, it lies about 5,000 light-years away toward the nebula rich constellation Sagittarius. A star forming region in the plane of our galaxy, the Trifid does illustrate three different types of astronomical nebulae; red emission nebulae dominated by light from hydrogen atoms, blue reflection nebulae produced by dust reflecting starlight, and dark nebulae where dense dust clouds appear in silhouette. But, the red emission region roughly separated into three parts by obscuring dust lanes is what lends the Trifid its popular name. Pillars and jets sculpted by newborn stars, above and right of the emission nebula's center, appear in famous Hubble Space Telescope close-up images of the region. The Trifid Nebula is about 40 light-years across. Too faint to be seen by the unaided eye, in this deep telescopic view it almost covers the area of a full moon on planet Earth's sky.
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/hubble/science/explore-the-night-sky/hubble-messier-catalog/messier-20/
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080424.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trifid_Nebula
https://science.nasa.gov/asset/hubble/the-trifid-nebula-stellar-nursery-torn-apart-by-radiation-from-nearby-star/

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Messier 20 (The Trifid Nebula)
NASA Hubble Mission Team

Look for Messier 20, better known as the Trifid Nebula, in August.
Distance

9,000 light-years
constellation

Sagittarius

Discovered by Charles Messier in 1764, M20 is a star-forming nebula located 9,000 light-years away from Earth in the constellation Sagittarius. Also known as the Trifid Nebula, M20 has an apparent magnitude of 6.3 and can be spotted with a small telescope. It is best observed during August.

These images' stair-step appearances result from the design of the camera used to take the exposures. The camera consisted of four light detectors, one of which provided a higher resolution but had a smaller field of view than the other three. Because the detector with the higher resolution did not cover as much area as the others, black regions were left when the images from all four detectors were combined into one picture.

This Hubble image of M20 has been colorized to indicate the presence of oxygen, sulfur and hydrogen.

The video zooms into Hubble’s image of the heart of the Trifid Nebula. The zoom starts by looking at the Sagittarius constellation in the night sky and dissolves into the Lagoon Nebula. The video then goes deeper into the sky to show the Trifid Nebula, with the star birth region appearing as the final spectacular image.

CREDIT
NASA, Z. Levay and L. Barranger (STScI)

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This Hubble image reveals a star-forming cloud of gas and dust in M20 being torn apart by radiation from a massive nearby star, just beyond the top of the frame. Two thin, finger-like jets protrude from the head of a dense cloud in the upper left of the image, which might be forming new stars at their tips. The jets, each roughly three-quarters of a light-year long, are being eroded by the radiation from the massive star. The red in this image represents hydrogen and sulfur, while green represents oxygen.

CREDIT
NASA/ESA and Jeff Hester (Arizona State University)

https://science.nasa.gov/mission/hubble/science/explore-the-night-sky/hubble-messier-catalog/messier-20/

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2009 May 22

East of Antares
* Credit & Copyright: Yuri Beletsky (ESO)
http://www.eso.org/

Explanation:
East of Antares, dark markings sprawl through crowded star fields toward the center of our Milky Way Galaxy. Cataloged in the early 20th century by astronomer E. E. Barnard, the obscuring interstellar dust clouds include B59, B72, B77 and B78, seen in silhouette against the starry background. Here, their combined shape suggests a pipe stem and bowl, and so the dark nebula's popular name is the Pipe Nebula. The deep and expansive view was recorded in very dark Chilean skies. It covers a full 10 by 7 degree field in the pronounceable constellation Ophiuchus. The Pipe Nebula is part of the Ophiuchus dark cloud complex located at a distance of about 450 light-years. Dense cores of gas and dust within the Pipe Nebula are collapsing to form stars.
https://arxiv.org/abs/0904.4169

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090522.html

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2009 May 21

IC 4592: A Blue Horsehead
* Credit & Copyright: Rogelio Bernal Andreo

Explanation:
This complex of beautiful, dusty reflection nebulae lies in the constellation Scorpius along the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy. Its overall outline suggests a horsehead in profile, though it covers a much larger region than the better known Horsehead Nebula of Orion. The star near the eye of the horse and the center of the 5 degree wide field, is embedded in blue reflection nebula IC 4592 over 400 light-years away. At that distance, the view spans nearly 40 light-years. The horse's gaze seems fixed on Beta Scorpii, also named Graffias, the bright star at the lower left. Toward the top right, near the horse's ear, is another striking bluish reflection nebula, IC 4601. The characteristic blue hue of reflection nebulae is caused by the tendency of interstellar dust to more strongly scatter blue starlight.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090521.html

#space #nebula #astrophotography #photography #science #astronomy #physics #nature #NASA #ESA