Tag: Astronomy

NGC 1672 from Hubble

NGC 1672 is a barred spiral galaxy in the constellation Dorado. Its massive spiral arms display clusters of hot young blue stars , and beautiful clouds of pink ionized hydrogen gas. Dust lanes throughout the galaxy obscure and redden the light of the stars behind them. NGC 1672’s dynamic core is emphzised by the ring of hydrogen gas and dark dust lanes around it. Image: Details: All data was taken by Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys by the following proposal: https://archive.stsci.edu/proposal_search.php?mission=hst&id=10354 Processing

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Messier 42 and surrounding nebulosity

This image showcases the bright orion nebula and its surrounding dust. The bright central nebula is lit by the star cluster at its center; the rest of the dust is a combination of glowing red hydrogen and darker, cooler dust. Some notable features in this image include the tip of the horsehead nebula on the bottom left, and the dark trail of dust including NGC 1999 on the right. This image combines 28 hours of long exposure with 30 minutes of short exposure to preserve dynamic range. […]

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Hubble’s incredible mosaic of Messier 82

Also known as the Cigar Galaxy because of its appearance, Messier 82 is a starburst galaxy with a superwind. In fact, through supernova explosions and powerful winds from massive stars, the burst of star formation is driving the stunning red outflows. This image highlights emission from filaments of atomic hydrogen gas in reddish hues. The filaments extend for well over 10,000 light-years. I recommend checking out the full 66 megapixel image on Gigapan, where you can zoom into all the awesome filamentary details. http://www.gigapan.com/gigapans/227686 Image: Details: All […]

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Messier 51 from Hubble

The graceful, winding arms of the majestic whirlpool galaxy appear like a grand spiral staircase sweeping through space. They are actually long lanes of stars and gas laced with dust. This sharpest-ever image of the Whirlpool Galaxy illustrates a spiral galaxy’s grand design, from its curving spiral arms, where young stars reside, to its yellowish central core, a home of older stars. The bright pink regions display large bursts of H-alpha, where new stars are formed. I would highly recommend viewing this image on gigapan, where you […]

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The Grand Pleiades star cluster

Edit 10/25/2021: This image was featured by AAPOD 2! You can check it out here: https://www.aapod2.com/blog/grand%20pleiades Perhaps the most famous star cluster on the sky, the bright stars of the Pleiades can be seen without binoculars from even the depths of a light-polluted city. With a long exposure from a dark location, though, the dust cloud surrounding the Pleiades star cluster becomes very evident. Two techniques were used to get this image: framing selection and downsampling. I chose only about 65% of the frames that I actually […]

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NGC 3314 from Hubble

Update 11/17/2021: This image was featured by NASA’s APOD! You can check out their version here: https://theastroenthusiast.com/ngc-3314-from-hubble/ This object is not one but two – two galaxies seeming to overlap by mere chance. The spiral galaxy in front is viewed nearly face-on, its pinwheel shape defined by young, blue, bright star clusters. Against the glow of the background galaxy, dark swirling lanes of interstellar dust appear to dominate the face-on spiral structure. The dust lanes are surprisingly pervasive, and this remarkable pair of overlapping galaxies is one […]

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NGC 6814 from Hubble

Together with irregular galaxies, spiral galaxies make up approximately 60 percent of the galaxies in the local universe. However, despite their prevalence, each spiral galaxy is unique — like snowflakes, no two are alike. This is demonstrated by the striking face-on spiral galaxy NGC 6814, whose luminous nucleus and spectacular sweeping arms, rippled with an intricate pattern of dark dust, are captured in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image. NGC 6814 has an extremely bright nucleus, a telltale sign that the galaxy is a Seyfert galaxy. These […]

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NGC 4676 from Hubble

Update 10/4/2021: This image has been chosen as an APOD by NASA! You can view their write-up here: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap211004.html. These two mighty galaxies are pulling each other apart. Known as “The Mice” because they have such long tails, each spiral galaxy has likely already passed through the other. They will probably collide again and again until they coalesce. The long tails are created by the relative difference between gravitational pulls on the near and far parts of each galaxy. Because the distances are so large, the cosmic […]

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The dumbbell nebula from Hubble

When Hubble processes images, they usually crop to the most interesting part. This image, however, shows the entire area captured by the sensor! The pure black areas in this image are parts where there is no sensor. This image looks to me more like a painting than a photo. Tho colors, the bulbos shapes, the small details all look like oil on canvas. Image: Details: All data was taken by Hubble’s Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) from the following proposal: https://archive.stsci.edu/proposal_search.php?mission=hst&id=8726 Processing Stretch each channel combine colors […]

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ARP 273 from Hubble

This is one of my absolute favorite galaxies, so I had to take a shot at processing it! The whirling spirals, the dark dust lanes, the beautiful colors – Hubble really picked a great target! From APOD’s description (4/21/2011): “The spiky stars in the foreground of this sharp cosmic portrait are well within our own Milky Way Galaxy. The two eye-catching galaxies lie far beyond the Milky Way, at a distance of over 300 million light-years. Their distorted appearance is due to gravitational tides as the pair […]

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