Tag: Star

NGC 2170: The Angel Nebula

Is this a painting or a photograph? In this classic celestial still life composed with a cosmic brush, dusty nebula NGC 2170, also known as the Angel Nebula, shines near the image center. Reflecting the light of nearby hot stars, NGC 2170 is joined by other bluish reflection nebulae, a red emission region, many dark absorption nebulae, and a backdrop of colorful stars. Like the common household items that still life painters often choose for their subjects, the clouds of gas, dust, and hot stars featured here […]

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Interesting Astronomy news from the week of 8/21/2022

Read about the coolest discoveries, research updates, and images of this week’s astronomy: A JWST discovery of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of an exoplanet, an extrasolar world covered in water, and a new planetary nebula. JWST discovery of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of an exoplanet For the first time, astronomers have found solid evidence of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of an exoplanet! Carbon dioxide is an important component of the atmospheres of planets in our solar system, found on rocky planets like Mars and […]

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Interesting Astronomy news from the week of 8/14/2022

Read about the coolest discoveries, research updates, and images of this week’s astronomy: New insights into turbulence raging inside distant stars, a discovery of one of the largest black hole jets, and a beautiful image of a comsic dance! New insights into turbulence raging inside distant stars Stunning new images created by Keele researchers highlight the turbulent flow of energy inside distant stars. They were created using the 3D simulation software “PROMPI”, which scientists have been using to investigate stellar interiors with the aim of understanding the […]

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The boomerang nebula from Hubble

The Hubble Space Telescope has “caught” the Boomerang Nebula in these new images taken with the Advanced Camera for Surveys. This reflecting cloud of dust and gas has two nearly symmetric lobes (or cones) of matter that are being ejected from a central star. Over the last 1,500 years, nearly one and a half times the mass of our Sun has been lost by the central star of the Boomerang Nebula in an ejection process known as a bipolar outflow. The nebula’s name is derived from its […]

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Hubble’s stunning 325 megapixel mosaic of the Tarantula Nebula

I don’t really think that words can effectively describe this image. There’s so much going on here that it almost seems wrong to try to simplify what’s happening, but here goes: At the top center lies a massive star cluster that’s putting out enormous amounts of energy. All the hydrogen gas around that star cluster is being ionized, much like a neon sign. The ionization and energy outflows create the beautiful knots and filaments that you can see. By looking at this region through a filter that […]

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A luminous M42

The first image from my new mount! The GEM28 has turned out to be an incredibly accurate mount, giving me sharp stars at 600mm with 4 minute exposures! The Great Orion Nebula, an immense, nearby starbirth region, is probably the most famous of all astronomical nebulas. Here, glowing gas surrounds hot young stars at the edge of an immense interstellar molecular cloud only 1500 light-years away. The bright core illuminates the surrounding the star cluster, highlighting the streams of dark dust on top. Image: Equipment: Nikon D800 […]

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A colorful cosmic rose: A collaboration of 110+ hours of data from three continents

I highly recommend opening the full version to take a closer look at some of the finer details revealed by the large integration time. A starless copy is also provided to show off fainter detail. This incredibly detailed image of the Rosette nebula was created from more than 110 hours of exposure across three continents —  Europe, USA, and Oceania. We combined 1064 subframes and 6791 minutes of exposure to reveal faint details previously masked by lower amounts of data. The high exposure time also allowed us […]

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Nebulosity in the Auriga Region

This image showcases much of the nebulosity in the Auriga region in its natural colors. On the left is the flaming star nebula, an emission-reflection nebulae ionized by the star at its core. The blue parts are reflection, and the red parts are emission. At top center lies the tadpole nebula, a strong emission nebula. On the left are the spider and fly nebulae, two complex regions, of dark nebula, dust, emission nebulae, and reflection nebulae. Below theses two nebula is an open star cluster. Scroll down […]

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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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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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