Page 8
|
|
 |
Great Orion Nebula: The brightest object in the image is a massive young star called BN (Becklin-Neugebauer). Blue "fingers" of molecular hydrogen emission indicate the presence of violent outflows, probably produced by a young star or stars still embedded in dust (located to the lower left, southeast, of BN). — More....
|
|
 |
Orion Nebula: This spectacular color panorama of the center of the Orion nebula is one of the largest pictures ever assembled from individual images taken by HST. The seemingly infinite tapestry of rich detail shows a churning turbulent star factory set within a maelstrom of flowing, luminescent gas. This 2.5 light-years wide view is a small portion of the entire nebula. — More....
|
|
 |
Orion (cont.): This is one of the nearest regions of very recent star formation (300,000 years ago). The nebula is a giant gas cloud illuminated by the brightest of the young hot stars at the top of the picture. Many of the fainter young stars are surrounded by disks of dust and gas that are slightly more than twice the diameter of the Solar System. — More....
|
|
 |
Orion (cont.): Hubble shows a wealth of detail never seen before in the nebula. New features include: elongated objects oriented on the brightest stars in this region (which are located just off the edge of the picture); rapidly expanding plumes of material around young stars; and protoplanetary disks.
|
|
 |
Phi Persei: This artist depiction shows how to lose weight at Phi Persei. A star shedding pounds is represented as the white object in the upper right. The red, pancake-shaped object surrounding it is a gas disk of material the star is losing because of its rapid rotation. The small, hot sub-dwarf in the lower left is a star benefiting from its companion's weight-loss program. — More....
|
|
 |
Pleiades cluster, or Seven Sisters: Astronomers using NASA's HST have helped settle a mystery that has puzzled scientists concerning the exact distance to the famous nearby star cluster known as the Pleiades, or the Seven Sisters. Although it might be expected that the distance to this well-studied cluster would be well established, there has been an ongoing controversy among astronomers about its distance for the past seven years. More....
|
|
 |
POX 186, new dwarf galaxy: The distorted shape of this tiny object is evidence that it is a dwarf galaxy in the process of formation. This image shows the bluish-white glow of newborn stars at the galaxy's core, and an arch of stars (at right). Both features suggest a recent collision between two smaller clumps of stars that occurred within the past 100 million years. — More....
|
|
 |
Radio galaxy: Giant jets of subatomic particles moving at nearly the speed of light have been found coming from thousands of galaxies across the Universe, but always from elliptical galaxies or galaxies in the process of merging — until now. Using HST combined with other agencies, astronomers have discovered a huge jet coming from a spiral galaxy similar to our own Milky Way. — More....
|
|
 |
R-Aquarii: R Aquarii is an example of a class of double stars called symbiotic stars. One of the closest stars known to undergo violent eruptions that spew out huge quantities of processed nuclear material into the surrounding space, R Aquarii was studied by none other than Edwin Hubble in an effort to understand the mechanism that powers the cataclysm. — More....
|
|
 |
OH231.8+4.2, Rotten Egg nebula: The object shown in these HST images is an example of a star going through death throes just as it transforms itself from a normal red giant into a planetary nebula. This process happens so quickly that such objects are quite rare, even though astronomers believe that most stars like the Sun will eventually go through such a phase. — More....
|
|
 |
Seyfert's Sextet: A group of galaxies engaging in a dance of destruction that will last for billions of years. The galaxies are so tightly packed that gravitational forces are beginning to rip stars from them and distort their shapes. Or, gravity eventually could bring the galaxies together to form one large galaxy. The group is 190 million light-years away in the constellation Serpens. — More....
|
Page 8
|
