The Incredibly Beautiful Orion Nebula (M42)

By on Mar 16, 2016 in Nebula | 0 comments

If you were to ask what is one of the most famous nebulae or images of a nebula in astronomy it’s the great Orion Nebula or M42.  This gorgeous emission nebula or diffused nebula is located about 1,344 light years from Earth in the constellation Orion, south of Orion’s belt. What’s interesting about this nebula is that it’s moving away from us at 17.5 km per second! If we were going to compare the size of our Sun or mass of our Sun to M42 it would take 2,000 solar masses. The nebula has been churning and burning hydrogen and oxygen and other elements for 300,000 years in the universe. Deep within the heart of M42 is an enormous amount of energy that is causing this beautiful glow. The source is actually a young star burning bright called the Trapezium.   Looking at the temperature of this nebulous cloud it actually reaches a whopping 10,000 K or about 9,726...

Carnival of Space 449: Best Space Stories of the Week!

By on Mar 12, 2016 in Carnival of Space | 1 comment

Welcome to the Carnival of Space issue 449! If this is your first time coming across this series then let me give you a brief introduction. Carnival of Space is hosted by amazing space science bloggers across the globe where they share their best space stories. It makes your life a lot easier in tracking down these awesome stories and even some exposure to our grass roots community. We hope you enjoy these stories and learn something new today! Without further adieu here they are:     CHIMERA: New Instrument to Help Astronomers Discover Kuiper Belt Objetcs and NEAs Asteroids Here’s a post (in español) from our friends over at Vega00.com about how a new instrument called CHIMERA or Caltech HIgh-speed Multi-color camERA, will help astronomers discover more small Kuiper Belt Objects (KBO) and near-Earth asteroids. Check out the full post here.    Edge-On: Good for...

The Destructive Fate of the Comet Galaxy

By on Mar 9, 2016 in Galaxies | 1 comment

Galaxies all come in different shapes and sizes and it plays on our imagination of what life could be like in other galaxies. However, the Comet Galaxy brings something new to the table. It’s what astronomers and scientists discovered about this galaxy that made it so intriguing. The galaxy is ripping itself apart while flying through space at incredible speeds.   At the top left you can see the infamous Comet Galaxy leaving a trail of stars and gas as it’s flying through at 3.5 million kilometers/hr or 972 kilometers per second!! So you can imagine that this thing is just barely holding on to its mass and stars as it’s flying through. The Comet Galaxy is located 3.2 billion light years away in Abell 2667, so really it takes a very powerful telescope to even see this thing. The temperatures in the galaxy are estimated between 10 – 100 million degrees...

The Giant Stellar Nursery NGC 604 that’s 100x the Orion Nebula

By on Mar 7, 2016 in Pictures | 0 comments

The universe is no stranger to freakishly large objects. Well, enter NGC 604, it’s 1,520 light years across! As stated in the title it’s over 100 times bigger than the famous Orion Nebula. However, if you plan to take a trip there it would take you 2.7 million light years to get there. It’s located in an entire different galaxy called the Triangulum Galaxy. Here’s a photo of the Orion Nebula in comparison to NGC 604: If you want to get a sense of how far Orion Nebula is…well then just look at NGC 604. Its size is the distance from Earth to the Orion Nebula! If NGC 604 was at the distance of Orion Nebula (1,350 light years) it would take up 50 degrees in the night sky! To get an idea, hold up your fist in the air, and extend your thumb and pinky out. Now that distance between your thumb and pinky is 25 degrees. Two of those would give you an idea of how big...

In the Heart Nebula lies Melotte 15

By on Mar 3, 2016 in Pictures | 0 comments

In the beautiful constellation Cassiopeia located 7,500 light years away from Earth, is a gorgeous star cluster called Melotte 15. It lays in the famous Heart Nebula and stretches for 30 light years in the image below, which would amount to 300 trillion km! The cosmic landscape of gorgeous colors represent different elements and gasses. In red we have sulfur, green is hydrogen (most abundant in the universe), and finally blueish hue is oxygen. This nebula and star cluster was only formed 1.5 million years ago, which is still considered a baby in the universe time-scale. Who knows what planets and species may already be present in this part of the universe, or what the future may hold for this star cluster. For now humans can look upon this nebula and star cluster with a sense of wonder and appreciation for how incredible the universe is.   Finally, where Molette is comfortably...