2023 October 4

via @teunvanderzalm

Wed. 4/16: Check back for our weather decision after 4 pm! The forecasts disagree.

NASA Science

Dust in the Stellar Wind: A Cosmological Primer - NASA Science

The handsome Horsehead Nebula, rearing up against glowing red gas, is sculpted from dust.

Article of the Day!

“Dust in the Stellar Wind: A Cosmological Primer” by Pat Brennan

I see an angry fox about to breathe fire.

Hind's Variable Nebula, NGC 1555 // Rocco Sung

This striking image captures the interacting galaxy pair known as Arp-Madore 2339-661, so named because they belong to the Arp-Madore catalogue of peculiar galaxies. However, this particular peculiarity might be even odder than first meets the eye, as there are in fact three galaxies interacting here, not just two. 

The two clearly defined galaxies are NGC 7733 (smaller, lower right) and NGC 7734 (larger, upper left). The third galaxy is currently referred to as NGC 7733N, and can actually be spotted in this picture if you look carefully at the upper arm of NGC 7733, where there is a visually notable knot-like structure, glowing with a different colour to the arm and obscured by dark dust. 

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA

Picture of the Day!

Also referred to as Messier 31, the Andromeda Galaxy is the nearest major neighbor to the Milky Way. It is roughly twice the size of our galaxy and lies approximately 2.5 million light-years away.

Wow - the visible star at the center of the planetary nebula is an A-type giant star. It's the companion of the white dwarf which spawned the nebula itself. (Loved the pic so much I had to read about the object a little).

NGC 1514 // Marc Fischer

If galaxies could talk, we’d want to ask for this galaxy’s skincare routine!

Meet I Zwicky 18, a galaxy lying 60 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major.

The bluish-white knots in the center are regions where stars are forming at a rapid rate. These large hubs of stellar creation and the lack of heavy elements in the surrounding gas caused astronomers to think that this dwarf irregular galaxy was very young, since it resembles galaxies in the early universe.

However, the Hubble Space Telescope revealed that I Zwicky 18 is more mature than it first appears. Hubble found faint, older stars within the galaxy, indicating that I Zwicky 18 has been forming stars for more than a billion years.

Credit: NASA, ESA, A. Aloisi (Space Telescope Science Institute and European Space Agency).

ALT TEXT: A bright white and blue oval-shaped area takes up most of the view and is largely centered. Cloud-like wisps of blue material surround the bright-white center, forming a fluffy wreath-like shape. The fluffy material begins as light blue near the center and gradually darkens moving outward. Stars, seen as many bright white and yellow small points of light, are densely grouped in the white and light blue region, forming two roughly circular clumps, one in the upper left and one in the lower right. The corners of the image are dark and mostly empty, with a few larger, fuzzy yellow points of light scattered infrequently throughout.

Wed. 4/16: We'll be open from 8:30 - 9:45 tonight!

2024 January 16

The Orion You Can Almost See Image Credit & Copyright: Michele Guzzini

Explanation: Do you recognize this constellation? Although it is one of the most recognizable star groupings on the sky, this is a more full Orion than you can see – an Orion only revealed with long exposure digital camera imaging and post- processing. Here the cool red giant Betelgeuse takes on a strong orange tint as the brightest star on the upper left. Orion’s hot blue stars are numerous, with supergiant Rigel balancing Betelgeuse on the lower right, and Bellatrix at the upper right. Lined up in Orion’s belt are three stars all about 1,500 light-years away, born from the constellation’s well-studied interstellar clouds. Just below Orion’s belt is a bright but fuzzy patch that might also look familiar – the stellar nursery known as Orion’s Nebula. Finally, just barely visible to the unaided eye but quite striking here is Barnard’s Loop – a huge gaseous emission nebula surrounding Orion’s Belt and Nebula discovered over 100 years ago by the pioneering Orion photographer E. E. Barnard.

∞ Source: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap240116.html