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Thursday, July 31, 2014
Zazzle Stretched Canvas Print from arrayforart: Vintage Postcard Weddi...
Stellar Nursery R136 in the Tarantula Nebula Canvas Print
tagged with: stars, galaxies, outer space, wallart, stretch frame, dorneblmc, stellar nursery, r136, 30 doradus nebula, massive stars, star cluster, amazing hubble images, tarantula nebula, large magellanic cloud
Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series Hundreds of brilliant blue stars wreathed by warm, glowing clouds in appear in this the most detailed view of the largest stellar nursery in our local galactic neighborhood. The massive, young stellar grouping, called R136, is only a few million years old and resides in the 30 Doradus (or Tarantula) Nebula, a turbulent star-birth region in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a satellite galaxy of our Milky Way.
There is no known star-forming region in our galaxy as large or as prolific as 30 Doradus. Many of the diamond-like icy blue stars are among the most massive stars known. Several of them are over 100 times more massive than our Sun. These hefty stars are destined to pop off, like a string of firecrackers, as supernovas in a few million years. The image, taken in ultraviolet, visible, and red light by Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3, spans about 100 light-years.
The movement of the LMC around the Milky Way may have triggered the massive cluster's formation in several ways. The gravitational tug of the Milky Way and the companion Small Magellanic Cloud may have compressed gas in the LMC. Also, the pressure resulting from the LMC plowing through the Milky Way's halo may have compressed gas in the satellite. The cluster is a rare, nearby example of the many super star clusters that formed in the distant, early universe, when star birth and galaxy interactions were more frequent.
The LMC is located 170,000 light-years away and is a member of the Local Group of Galaxies, which also includes the Milky Way. The Hubble observations were taken Oct. 20-27, 2009. The blue color is light from the hottest, most massive stars; the green from the glow of oxygen; and the red from fluorescing hydrogen.
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image code: dorneblmc
Image credit: Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3
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Zazzle Stretched Canvas Print from Portraits Naturally: Persian Shield
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Wednesday, July 30, 2014
Star Cluster Pismis 24, core of NGC 6357 Stretched Canvas Prints
tagged with: galaxies, outer space, stretch frame, star cluster, pismis 24, sculpting ultaviolet ionisation, super massive stars, nebula ngc 6357, sclustpsms, hrbstslr wallart
Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series The star cluster Pismis 24 lies in the core of the large emission nebula NGC 6357 that extends one degree on the sky in the direction of the Scorpius constellation. Part of the nebula is ionised by the youngest (bluest) heavy stars in Pismis 24. The intense ultraviolet radiation from the blazing stars heats the gas surrounding the cluster and creates a bubble in NGC 6357. The presence of these surrounding gas clouds makes probing into the region even harder. One of the top candidates for the title of "Milky Way stellar heavyweight champion" was, until now, Pismis 24-1, a bright young star that lies in the core of the small open star cluster Pismis 24 (the bright stars in the Hubble image) about 8,000 light-years away from Earth. Pismis 24-1 was thought to have an incredibly large mass of 200 to 300 solar masses. New NASA/ESA Hubble measurements of the star, have, however, resolved Pismis 24-1 into two separate stars, and, in doing so, have "halved" its mass to around 100 solar masses.
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image code: sclustpsms
Image credit: NASA/ESA Hubble
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Zazzle Stretched Canvas Print from Portraits Naturally: Yellow Columbi...
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Tuesday, July 29, 2014
Celestial Bauble - SXP1062 space picture Gallery Wrapped Canvas
tagged with: wallart, sculptured gas clouds, star incubator, star galaxies, outer space picture, sxp1062, supernova remnant, star factory, small magellanic cloud, deep space astronomy, hot young stars, smc
Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series In this composite image, X-rays from Chandra and XMM-Newton have been colored blue and optical data from the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile are colored red and green. The flowering shape on the left is a star factory and on the right is the pulsar. Known as SXP 1062, it's the bright white source located on the right-hand side of the image in the middle of the diffuse blue emission inside a red shell. The diffuse X-rays and optical shell are both evidence for a supernova remnant surrounding the pulsar. The optical data also displays spectacular formations of gas and dust in a star-forming region on the left side of the image. A comparison of the Chandra image with optical images shows that the pulsar has a hot, massive companion.
Astronomers are interested in SXP 1062 because the Chandra and XMM-Newton data show that it is rotating unusually slowly - about once every 18 minutes. (In contrast, some pulsars are found to revolve multiple times per second, including most newly born pulsars.) This relatively leisurely pace of SXP 1062 makes it one of the slowest rotating X-ray pulsars in the SMC.
Two different teams of scientists have estimated that the supernova remnant around SXP 1062 is between 10,000 and 40,000 years old, as it appears in the image. This means that the pulsar is very young, from an astronomical perspective, since it was presumably formed in the same explosion that produced the supernova remnant.
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image code: sxp1062
Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Univ.Potsdam/L.Oskinova et al & ESA/XMM-Newton; Optical: AURA/NOAO/CTIO/Univ.Potsdam/L.Oskinova et al
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Monday, July 28, 2014
Cassiopeia, Milky Ways Youngest Supernova Gallery Wrapped Canvas
tagged with: wallart, cassasn, star galaxies, outer space picture, supernova explosion, supernovae remnant, milky way youngest supernova, neutron star, deep space astronomy, cassiopeia, cosmic ray
Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series This extraordinarily deep Chandra image shows Cassiopeia A (Cas A, for short), the youngest supernova remnant in the Milky Way. New analysis shows that this supernova remnant acts like a relativistic pinball machine by accelerating electrons to enormous energies. The blue, wispy arcs in the image show where the acceleration is taking place in an expanding shock wave generated by the explosion. The red and green regions show material from the destroyed star that has been heated to millions of degrees by the explosion.
Astronomers have used this data to make a map, for the first time, of the acceleration of electrons in a supernova remnant. Their analysis shows that the electrons are being accelerated to almost the maximum theoretical limit in some parts of Cas A. Protons and ions, which make up the bulk of cosmic rays, are expected to be accelerated in a similar way to the electrons. Therefore, this discovery provides strong evidence that supernova remnants are key sites for energizing cosmic rays.
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image code: cassasn
Image credit: NASA/CXC/MIT/UMass Amherst/M.D. Stage et al.
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Sunday, July 27, 2014
Starry Wingtip of Small Magellanic Cloud Gallery Wrapped Canvas
tagged with: wallart, small magellanic cloud, star galaxies, starry, outer space picture, wismcg, deep space image, galactic, universe exploration, deep space astronomy, interstellar
Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series The tip of the "wing" of the Small Magellanic Cloud galaxy is dazzling in this new view from NASA's Great Observatories. The Small Magellanic Cloud, or SMC, is a small galaxy about 200,000 light-years way that orbits our own Milky Way spiral galaxy.
The colors represent wavelengths of light across a broad spectrum. X-rays from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory are shown in purple; visible-light from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is colored red, green and blue; and infrared observations from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope are also represented in red.
The spiral galaxy seen in the lower corner is actually behind this nebula. Other distant galaxies located hundreds of millions of light-years or more away can be seen sprinkled around the edge of the image.
The SMC is one of the Milky Way's closest galactic neighbors. Even though it is a small, or so-called dwarf galaxy, the SMC is so bright that it is visible to the unaided eye from the Southern Hemisphere and near the equator. Many navigators, including Ferdinand Magellan who lends his name to the SMC, used it to help find their way across the oceans.
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image code: wismcg
Image credit: NASA/CXC/JPL-Caltech/STScI
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Saturday, July 26, 2014
Desiderata Poem - Witch Head Nebula, Orions Knee Canvas Print
tagged with: full desiderata, desiderata poem, noise and haste, go placidly, star galaxies, outer space picture, wtchneb, deep space image, inspiring verses, wallart, wisdom, peace, galactic, deep space astronomy, starry
Inspirational Guidance series The full Desiderata by Max Ehrmann: Go placidly amidst the noise and haste... featuring a nebula whose billowy gas and dust clouds are lit by distant, bright stars, making it appear like a witch's head screaming curses silently into space.
They've found it to be one of the few ways for such wisdom to get past those raging hormones, giving support to the upcoming generation through their rebellious years and beyond...
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image code: wtchneb
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
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Zazzle Stretched Canvas Print from arrayforart: Forever Vintage Marria...
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