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Nebulae are titanic clouds of gas and dust in the space between the stars - stellar nurseries, stellar graveyards and dark constellations. Related to my articles at Astronomy.BellaOnline.Com, including "Nebulae" at http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art43407.asp
It looks like cosmic rosebud, but it's an infrared false color image of a nebula. Blue shows the highest temperatures and orange the coolest. The blue stars are a cluster of massive young hot stars. The green material is heated organic molecules and the orange shows cooler dust. (Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/WISE Team) ©Mona Evans, “Mother's Day – An Astronomy Bouquet” www.bellaonline.c...
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The Iris Nebula. It's a reflection nebula with dark dust filaments adding some visual structure. William Herschel discovered it in 1794. (Photo: Kent Wood) ©Mona Evans, “Mother's Day – An Astronomy Bouquet” www.bellaonline.c...
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The Trifid Nebula. It was discovered by Charles Messier in 1764. John Herschel first described it as 'trifid' meaning three-lobed. It's an emission nebula (the red gas which glows because it's energized by hot stars) surrounded by a reflection nebula (blue). (Photo: David Malin) ©Mona Evans, “Mother's Day – An Astronomy Bouquet” www.bellaonline.c...
The Tulip Nebula. Photo: J-P Metsävainio, who shows how it got its name. It's an emission nebula 7000 light years away in the constellation of Cygnus. ©Mona Evans, “Mother's Day – An Astronomy Bouquet” www.bellaonline.c...
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Keyhole Nebula NGC 3372 (Photo: Eduardo Bueno) It is about seven light years across, a region of the Eta Carinae Nebula which is about 200 light years across. The Keyhole Nebula is a dusty emission nebula. It contains dark regions of dust and molecular gas as well as bright regions where hot young stars make hydrogen gas glow. The 19th century astronomer John Herschel gave the nebula its common name because of its shape. ©Mona Evans, “Nebulae” www.bellaonline.c...
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NGC 2438 is a planetary nebula, ring-shaped like the Little Ghost Nebula. Its about 3,000 light years away. The Sun will end up looking something like this - but not for another five billion years or so. (Photo: Daniel López) ©Mona Evans, “Nebulae” www.bellaonline.c...
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The Triffid Nebula includes three types of nebula. The blue area is a reflection nebula, like the Witch Head. The lower red area is a stellar nursery (like IC 1639) where the hydrogen gas is energized by hot young stars. The dark areas that give the nebula its triffid-like look are dark nebulae like the Flying Emu. (photo: R. Jay Gabany) ©Mona Evans, “Nebulae” www.bellaonline.c...
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The Crab Nebula shown in a mosaic of Hubble Space Telescope images. The Crab Nebula is the remnant of a supernova witnessed by Chinese astronomers in 1054. When a massive star runs out of fuel, it ends its life in a spectacular supernova explosion. Here we see an area about twelve light years across - that's about seventy trillion miles. (Image processing: Davide De Martin) ©Mona Evans, “Nebulae” www.bellaonline.c...
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The Little Ghost Nebula is a planetary nebula. Nothing to do with planets, but they looked like planets in 18th century telescopes. Planetary nebulae form when a star like the Sun runs out of hydrogen and swells into a red giant, throwing off the outer layers of atmosphere. This often happens fairly symmetrically. (Image: Hubble Heritage Team) ©Mona Evans, “Nebulae” www.bellaonline.c...
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The Flying Emu is an Australian aboriginal constellation that stretches across the southern skies. It's formed by the dark nebulae against the glowing background, rather than by stars against a dark background. (Image: Barnaby Norris) ©Mona Evans, “Nebulae” www.bellaonline.c...
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Horsehead Nebula. It's a dark nebula of thick dust, so it can only be seen against the lighter background on the left. The Herschel Space Observatory image on the right is in infrared which can penetrate the dust. ©Mona Evans, “Nebulae” www.bellaonline.c...
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The Witch Head Nebula. It glows from light reflected from bright supergiant Rigel - Orion's left foot! Although Rigel is blue, the nebula is blue because the dust tends to absorb the red part of the light and reflect the blue. (Image: George Greany) ©Mona Evans, “Nebulae” www.bellaonline.c...
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IC 1396 is an enormous nebula, stretching over hundreds of light years in the constellation Cepheus. It glows red because hot young stars energize the hydrogen gas. (Photo: Nick Wright) ©Mona Evans, “Nebulae” www.bellaonline.c...
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Colleen Prest Spectacular! I want a telescope... an ENORMOUS telescope (because size DOES matter!) ...complete with a geeky astronomer to show me all this cool stuff!