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Saturday, August 31, 2013
Zazzle Stretched Canvas Print from ValeriesGallery: Pastel Zebra Patte...
Orion Nebula and Trapezium Stars Canvas Prints
Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series A gorgeous picture from the deep universe featuring the bubbling, seething mass of gas and dust that is the Orion Nebula, 1500 light years away and the closest star-forming region to us. The nebula is a star nursery in which there are birthing, new-born, young and adult stars. Look carefully in the brightest central region and you'll see the Trapezium, four of the most massive stars in Orion.
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image code: ornebcsfr
Image credit: NASA, ESA, M. Robberto (Space Telescope Science Institute/ESA) and the Hubble Space Telescope Orion Treasury Project Team
Zazzle Stretched Canvas Print from Bebops: Beer Bottles
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Friday, August 30, 2013
Protostar Herbig-Haro 34 Gallery Wrap Canvas
Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series A fantastic photograph from deep space showing a three-colour composite of the young object Herbig-Haro 34 (HH-34), now in the protostar stage of evolution. It is based on CCD frames obtained with the FORS2 instrument in imaging mode, on November 2 and 6, 1999.
This object has a remarkable, very complicated appearance that includes two opposite jets that ram into the surrounding interstellar matter. This structure is produced by a machine-gun-like blast of "bullets" of dense gas ejected from the star at high velocities (approaching 250 km/sec). This seems to indicate that the star experiences episodic "outbursts" when large chunks of material fall onto it from a surrounding disc.
HH-34 is located at a distance of approx. 1,500 light-years, near the famous Orion Nebula, one of the most productive star birth regions. Note also the enigmatic "waterfall" to the upper left, a feature that is still unexplained.The composite of three images was taken through three different filters : B (wavelength 429 nm; Full-Width-Half-Maximum (FWHM) 88 nm; exposure time 10 min; here rendered as blue), H-alpha (centered on the hydrogen emission line at wavelength 656 nm; FWHM 6 nm; 30 min; green) and S II (centrered at the emission lines of inonized sulphur at wavelength 673 nm; FWHM 6 nm; 30 min; red) during a period of 0.8 arcsec seeing. The field shown measures 6.8 x 4.5 arcmin and the images were recorded in frames of 2048 x 2048 pixels, each measuring 0.2 arcsec.
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image code: prstrhh34
ESO/J. Emerson/VISTA www.eso.org
Reproduced under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.
Thursday, August 29, 2013
Dumbbell Nebula, Constellation Vulpecula, The Fox Stretched Canvas Print
Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series A great photo from deep space featuring the Dumbbell Nebula - also known as Messier 27 or NGC 6853. It's a typical planetary nebula and is located in the constellation Vulpecula (The Fox).
The distance is rather uncertain, but is believed to be around 1,200 light-years. It was first described by the French astronomer and comet hunter Charles Messier who found it in 1764 and included it as no. 27 in his famous list of extended sky objects.
Despite its class, the Dumbbell Nebula has nothing to do with planets. It consists of very rarefied gas that has been ejected from the hot central star (well visible on this photo), now in one of the last evolutionary stages. The gas atoms in the nebula are excited (heated) by the intense ultraviolet radiation from this star and emit strongly at specific wavelengths.
This image is the beautiful by-product of a technical test of some FORS1 narrow-band optical interference filters. They only allow light in a small wavelength range to pass and are used to isolate emissions from particular atoms and ions.
In this three-colour composite, a short exposure was first made through a wide-band filter registering blue light from the nebula. It was then combined with exposures through two interference filters in the light of double-ionized oxygen atoms and atomic hydrogen. They were colour-coded as “blue”, “green” and “red”, respectively, and then combined to produce this picture that shows the structure of the nebula in “approximately true” colours.
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Image code: dmbblneb
ESO/J. Emerson/VISTA www.eso.org
Reproduced under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.
Zazzle Stretched Canvas Print from Henrik Lehnerer: Fractal
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Zazzle Stretched Canvas Print from Bebops: Pink Clover
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