The Opulent Vela Supernova Remnant

By on Feb 27, 2016 in Pictures, Supernova | 0 comments

If there’s one thing I can’t get enough of it’s the gorgeous supernovae remnant photos. The cosmos sculpts magnificent scenes from hundreds or hundred of thousands light years away from Earth. The beautiful image you see here is our friend called the Vela Supernova Remnant, located 800 light years away from Earth. This remnant exploded about 11,000 – 12,300 years ago. To give you some context 11,000 years ago on Earth was the emergence of the oldest city still around today called Jericho. Humans who settled there may have been able to see this supernova in the sky. The gorgeous filaments you see here are traces of expanding shockwaves in the X-ray wavelength. As these gasses of elements such as hydrogen and oxygen fly away from the detonated star, they smash into each other and eventually form into young stars. The blue points of light in the photo are the...

Horsehead and Flame Nebula: A Cosmic Tango

By on Feb 22, 2016 in Pictures | 0 comments

Estimated 1,500 light years away from planet Earth, lies a tale of two nebulae dancing in the cosmos. We’ll start with one of the most famous nebulae in astronomy: the Horsehead Nebula.  This gorgeous nebula is a dark nebula in the constellation Orion. The red emission nebula behind it acts like a gorgeous cosmic backdrop to show the curves and structure of this hydrogen gas beast. The head itself is about 2 to 3 light years across. In kilometers this would be about 20 – 30 trillion kilometers!   On the left hand side you’ll see its partner, famously known as, the Flame Nebula. This nebula is a star nursery for more than 800 young stars. Just right of the Flame Nebula, underneath the Horsehead Nebula, you’ll see a blue reflection nebula reflecting blue light from nearby stars. One of the most famous images of the Horsehead Nebula is the magnified image of...

Mysterious Dark Sand Dune on Mars

By on Feb 21, 2016 in Mars | 0 comments

Mars is a hot topic these days with the discovery of water, the revelation of what happened to the water on Mars billions of years ago, to this…mysterious sand dune. Yes, what they call the Namib dune. Mars has a lot of strange landscape features and this sand dune is no exception. The dune is about 4 meters tall and what separates this dune from the rest is the fact that it moves 1 meter per year. Mars rover Curiosity took a side quest to actually study this up close. It’ll help scientists understand how Martian dunes act and behave. There isn’t a ton of information on this dune as this photo was taken in November of 2015. It still counts as a first for humans studying an active sand dune other than Earth.   For more information or to download the full image in color you can check out JPL’s webpage here.  

Furious 20,000 Year Explosion Wolf-Rayet Star 124

By on Feb 19, 2016 in Wolf-Rayet Star | 0 comments

When we think of stars going supernova we might imagine one of the most incredible explosions in the universe. Nothing surprising here. However, when we think about how fast the explosion happens, well there’s a whole different story altogether. Enter Wolf-Rayet Star 124. Let’s take a sidebar and talk about this specific stellar death scenario. It’s one that is really like no other!   What is a Wolf-Rayet Star? A Wolf-Rayet Star has a few requirements. It is a star at least 20 times massive than our Sun, that starts its final farewell or beings to die a lot earlier than typical stars. They really embody the phrase “live fast and die hard.” What makes Wolf-Rayet stars fascinating is how quickly and furiously these stars go out. These magnificent stars are fusing through elements so fast that their solar winds are traveling at a blazing 3.6 million KM...

What Being an Astronomy Fan has Taught Me

By on Feb 18, 2016 in My two cents | 0 comments

Astronomy or even just science has taught me so much in my life that I figured I should share my key takeaways. I’m still learning so it’ll be great to revisit this post in about 5-10 years to see what else I’ve picked up. Before I jump in to this post I should give you some context about myself, the BrownSpaceman. Here are a few points about me before I really noticed the beauty of the universe and the poetry of science. I did not enjoy science in school and often struggled with math I enjoyed astronomy but nothing beyond looking through a telescope I rarely thought or looked at things in a scientific way   Flash forward to my third year in university I took an astronomy course with a friend. I mostly took it because I liked astronomy and heard it was an easy course (some motivation I had!). I didn’t find anything too eye opening to be honest. However, one...