NGC 3132 The Eight Burst Nebula

NGC 3132 The Eight Burst Nebula



It's the dim star, not the bright one, near the center o NGC 3132that created this odd but beautiful planetary nebula. Nicknamed the Eight-Burst Nebula and the Southern Ring Nebula, the glowing gas originated in the outer layers of a star like our Sun. In thi representativecolor picture, the hot blue pool of light seen surrounding this binary system is energized by the hot surface of the faint star. Although photographed to explore unusual symmetries, it's the asymmetries that help make this planetary nebula so intriguing. Neither the unusual shape of the surrounding cooler shell nor the structure and placements of the cool filamentary dust lanes running across NGC 3132are well understood.

A Note on the Perseus Cluster

A Note on the Perseus Cluster



A truly enormous collection of thousands of galaxies, th Perseus Cluster - like othe large galaxy clusters - isfilled with hot, x-ray emitting gas.The x-ray hot gas(not the individual galaxies) appearsin the left panel above, a false colo imagefrom the Chandra Observatory.The bright central source flanked by tw dark cavities isthe cluster's supermassive black hole.At right, the panel shows th x-ray imagedata specially processedto enhance contrasts and reveals a strikingly regularpattern of pressure wave rippling throughthe hot gas. In other words soundwaves, likely generated by bursts ofactivity from the black hole, are ringing through thePerseus Galaxy Cluster.Astronomers infer that these previously unknown sound waves are asource of energy which keeps the cluster gas so hot So what note is the Perseus Cluster playing?Estimates of the distance between the wave peaks and sound speedin the cluster gas suggeststhe cosmic note is about 57 octaves below B-flat above middle C.

NGC 3370 A Sharper View

NGC 3370 A Sharper View



Similar in size and grand design to ou ownMilky Way, spiral galaxy NGC 3370 lies about 100 millionlight-years away toward the constellation Leo.Recorde herein exquisite detail by the Hubble Space Telescope' Advanced Camera for Surveys,the big, beautiful face-on spiral does steal the show,but the sharp image also reveals an impressive array ofbackground galaxies in the field, strewn acrossthe more distant Universe.Looking within NGC 3370 theimage data has proved sharp enoughto study individual pulsating stars known a Cepheids whichcan be used to accurately determine this galaxy's distance.NGC 3370 was chosen for this study because in 1994the spiral galaxy was also home to a well studied stellarexplosion -- a type Ia supernova.Combining the known distance to thi standard candle supernova,based on the Cepheid measurements, with observationsof supernovae at even greater distances,can reveal the size and expansion rate of th Universeitself.

Aurora Over Clouds

Aurora Over Clouds



Aurorae usually occur high above the clouds. The auroral glow is created when fast-moving charged particles fromthe Earth's magnetosphere impact air molecules high in the Earth's atmosphere. An oxygen molecule, for example, will emit a green light when reacquiring an electron lost during a collision. The lowest part of an aurora will typically occur at 100 kilometers and up, while most clouds usually exist only below about 10 kilometers. The relative heights of clouds and auroras are shown clearly in the above picture taken last month from near Quebec City, Canada.The most likely time to see an aurora is around midnight.

A Gemini Sky

A Gemini Sky



Where will Gemini take us tonight?It is dusk and Gemini North, one of the largest telescopes on planet Earth, prepares to peer into the distant universe. Gemini's flexible 8.1-mirror has taken already effectively taken humanity to distant stars, nebulas, galaxies, and quasars, telling us about the geometry, composition, and evolution of our universe.The above picture is actually a composite of over 40 images taken while the Gemini dome rotated, later adding an image of the star field taken from the same location.The Gemini dome is not transparent -- it only appears so because it rotated during the exposures of this image.The constellations of Scorpius and Sagittarius can be seen above the dome, as well as the sweeping band of our Milky Way Galaxy,including the direction toward the Galactic center.Gemini North's twin, Gemini South, resides in Cerro Pachn, Chile. This night, 2003 August 19, Gemini North took us only into the outer Solar System, observing Pluto in an effort to better determine the composition of its thin atmosphere.

Stars and Dust of the Lagoon Nebula

Stars and Dust of the Lagoon Nebula



The large majestic Lagoon Nebula is home for many young stars and hot gas. Spanning 100 light years across while lying only about 5000 light years distant, the Lagoon Nebulae is so big and bright thatit can be seen without a telescope toward the constellation of Sagittarius. Many bright stars are visible from NGC 6530, an open cluster that formed in the nebula only several million years ago.The greater nebula, also known as M8 and NGC 6523, is named "Lagoon" for the band of dust seen to the left of the open cluster's center. A bright knot of gas and dust in the nebula's center is known as the Hourglass Nebula. The above picture is a digitally sharpened composite of exposures taken in specific colors of light emitted by sulfur (red), hydrogen (green), and oxygen (blue).Star formation continues in the Lagoon Nebula as witnessed by the many globules that exist there.

The Galactic Center in Infrared

The Galactic Center in Infrared



The center of our Galaxy is a busy place. In visible light, much of the Galactic Center is obscured by opaque dust. In infrared light, however, dust glows more and obscures less, allowing nearly one million stars to be recorded in the above photograph. The Galactic Center itself appears on the right and is located about 30,000 light years away towards the constellation of Sagittarius. The Galactic Plane of our Milky Way Galaxy, the plane in which the Sun orbits, is identifiable by the dark diagonal dust lane. The absorbing dust grains are created in the atmospheres of cool red-giant stars and grow in molecular clouds. The region directly surrounding the Galactic Center glows brightly in radio and high-energy radiation, and is thought to house a large black hole.

Jupiter Unpeeled

Jupiter Unpeeled



SliceJupiterfrom pole to pole, peel back its outer layer of clouds,stretch them onto a flat surface ... and for all yourtrouble you'd end up with something that looks a lot like this.Scrolling right will reveal the full picture a color mosaic o Jupiterfrom the Cassini spacecraft.The mosaic is actually a single frame from a fourteen framemovie constructed from image data recorded by Cassiniduring it leisurelyflyby of the solar system's largestplanet in late 2000 Theengaging movie approximatesJupiter's cloud motions over 24 jovian rotations.To make it, a series of observations coveringJupiter's complete circumference60 degrees north and southof the equator were combined in an animate cylindricalprojection map of the planet.As in the familiar rectangular-shaped wall maps of th Earth's surface, therelative sizes and shapes of features arecorrect near the equator but become progressively more distortedapproaching the polar regions.In the Cassini movie, which also features guest appearancesby moons Io an Europa, the smallest cloud structuresvisible at the equator are about 600 kilometers across.

SIRTF Streak

SIRTF Streak



Streaking skyward, Boeing Delta 2-Heavy rocket carries NASA' Space InfraRedTelescope Facility (SIRTF) aloft duringthe early morning hours of August 25th.The dramatic scene was recorded in a time exposure from the pierin Jetty Park at the northern end of Cocoa Beach, Florida,about 2.5 miles from the Cape Canaveral launch site.SIRTF (sounds like "sir tiff") will explore the distan Universe in infrared lightas the fourth and finalsatellite observatory in NASA' Great Observatories Program.The three other large astrophysics satellites were designedfor higher energies in the electromagnetic spectrum, with th Hubble Space Telescopeoperating near visible wavelengths, th Compton Gamma Ray Observatoryinstruments sensitive to gamma rays, and th Chandra Observatorydetecting cosmic x-rays.SIRTF has been launched into a Earth-trailingsolar orbit to reduce its exposure to infrared radiation fromour fair planet.Cooled by an on board supply o liquid helium,SIRTF's infrared detectors will operate at near absolute zerotemperatures.Presently, SIRTF's systems are undergoing a 90-day check out.