Alex Cunningham
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The Fibonacci Sequence As Seen in Flowers gallery by Environmental Graffiti is a math and history lesson wrapped in a pretty...
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NGC 3372: The Great Carina Nebula
One of our galaxy’s largest star-forming regions.
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INK
[noun]
1. a fluid or viscous substance used for writing or printing.
2 .a dark, protective fluid ejected by the...
Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud (by Hubble Heritage)
<i>Via Flickr:</i>
Brash young stars vie for attention in this NASA Hubble Space Telescope image of a rowdy stellar nursery located in the heart of the Tarantula Nebula (also known as 30 Doradus). Early astronomers gave the nebula this descriptive nickname because its glowing, spindly filaments look like spider legs.
30 Doradus is the brightest “starburst” region visible in a neighboring galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud. No known star-forming region in our own galaxy is as large or as prolific as 30 Doradus. Fortunately, 30 Doradus can be seen clearly from Earth, and it is nearby enough for Hubble to resolve its individual stars. This allows astronomers the rare opportunity to study stellar evolution closely in the exotic, extragalactic context of a starburst.
The Hubble composite image comprises one of the largest mosaics ever assembled from Hubble photos, including observations taken by Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 and the Advanced Camera for Surveys. Hubble’s unparalleled eye for fine, intricate detail is composited with ground-based data that trace hydrogen gas (in red) and oxygen (in blue). These complementary observations of the Tarantula Nebula were taken with the European Southern Observatory’s 2.2-meter telescope in La Silla, Chile. NASA and the Space Telescope Science Institute are releasing this image to celebrate Hubble’s 22nd anniversary.
BigBlast_small.mov (by SDOmission2009)
TEDx YALE- Priyamvada Natarajan- Unraveling the Dark Side of the Universe
Priyamvada Natarajan, A Guggenheim fellow and professor of Astronomy and Physics at Yale, discusses how her research in cosmology, gravitational lensing, and black hole physics lends to an unraveling of the universe.
Spiral Galaxy Study Yields Super Sharp Images
The galaxies represent three different classes of spiral shapes. Three of them — dubbed NGC 5247, NGC 4030 and NGC 2997 — are simply designated as spiral galaxies. One galaxy, NGC 1300, is a “barred spiral,” with two arms extending from a prominent central bar. Another, NGC 1232, is an “intermediate spiral,” lying somewhere between barred and unbarred galaxies. And NGC 4321 (also known as Messier 100) is a “grand spiral,” featuring several well-defined, tentacle-like spiral arms.
NGC 5247
- Grand design barred spiral galaxy
- 60–70 million light-years from Earth
- Constellation: Virgo
Messier 100 (NGC 4321)
- Grand design spiral galaxy
- 55 million light-years from Earth
- Constellation: Coma Berenices
NGC 1300
- Barred spiral galaxy
- 65 million light-years from Earth
- Constellation: Eridanus
NGC 4030
- Spiral galaxy
- 75 million light-years from Earth
- Constellation: Virgo
NGC 2997
- Spiral galaxy
- 30 million light-years from Earth
- Constellation: Antlia
NGC 1232
- Intermediate spiral galaxy
- 65 million light-years from Earth
- Constellation: Eridanus
Images: ESO/P. Grosbøl
(via uraniaproject)
Starbursts May Actually Destroy Globular Clusters
A movie of two colliding galaxies based on new computer simulations from astronomers from the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics. The simulations covers 3.3 billion years. The galaxies eventually merge, destroying many of the stellar clusters (visible here as dots) in the process. Credit: D. Kruijssen, MPA
(via skeptv)
The Tarantula Nebula
Located inside the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) – one of our closest galaxies – in what some describe as a frightening sight, the Tarantula nebula is worth looking at in detail. Also known as 30 Doradus or NGC 2070, the nebula owes its name to the arrangement of its bright patches that somewhat resemble the legs of a tarantula. Taking the name of one of the biggest spiders on Earth is very fitting in view of the gigantic proportions of this celestial nebula — it measures nearly 1,000 light years across ! Its proximity, the favourable inclination of the LMC, and the absence of intervening dust make this nebula one of the best laboratories to better understand the formation of massive stars. This spectacular nebula is energised by an exceptionally high concentration of massive stars, often referred to as super star clusters. This image is based on data acquired with the 1.5 m Danish telescope at the ESO La Silla Observatory in Chile, through three filters (B: 80 s, V: 60 s, R: 50 s).
Credit: ESO/IDA/Danish 1.5 m/R. Gendler, C. C. Thöne, C. Féron, and J.-E.
(via uraniaproject)
