Jellies and Beyond

Ask me anythingSubmitCategories!Next pageArchive

59

spacettf: Astronomers ‘Flip’ Over Cartwheel Galaxy (NASA, Chandra, 1/6/06) by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center on Flickr. Via Flickr: This image combines data from four different observatories: the Chandra X-ray Observatory (purple); the Galaxy Evolution Explorer satellite (ultraviolet/blue); the Hubble Space Telescope (visible/green); the Spitzer Space Telescope (infrared/red). The unusual shape of the Cartwheel Galaxy is likely due to a collision with one of the smaller galaxies on the lower left several hundred million years ago. The smaller galaxy produced compression waves in the gas of the Cartwheel as it plunged through it. These compression waves trigger bursts of star formation. The most recent star burst has lit up the Cartwheel’s rim, which has a diameter larger than that of the Milky Way galaxy, with millions of bright young stars. When the most massive of these stars explode as supernovas, they leave behind neutron stars and black holes. Some of these neutron stars and black holes have nearby companion stars, and have become powerful sources of X-rays as they pull matter off their companions. The brightest X-ray sources are likely black holes with companion stars, and appear as the white dots that lie along the rim of the X-ray image. The Cartwheel contains an exceptionally large number of these black hole binary X-ray sources, because many massive stars formed in the rim. Image credit: Composite: NASA/JPL/Caltech/P.Appleton et al. X-ray: NASA/CXC/A.Wolter & G.Trinchieri et al.

12

spacettf: lunar eclipse by caraewilton on Flickr.

24

spacettf: Le grand Coeur IC1805 by Marq05 (Denis) on Flickr.

35

spacettf: Nébuleuse M-8 by Marq05 (Denis) on Flickr.

34

iliveinaspiralgalaxy: Rosette Nebula, Hydrogen Alpha, False Colour by Steve Carmichael on Flickr.

4048

5

roethescribbler: A girl watches Moon Jellies swimming in a giant cylindrical aquarium on display during the preview for “The Jellies Experience” exhibition. (Source)

34

46

7

38

expose-the-light: A colossal “superwind” is blowing all across this galaxy Galaxy M82 isn’t just having kind of a blustery day — thanks to a recent near-collision with another galaxy, all its massive stars and supernovas are combining to create a massive galaxy-wide superwind. The result is that huge haze of red gas. All star systems create what’s known as solar wind, which is the stream of charged particles emitted from the outer atmospheres of stars. In M82, also known as the Cigar Galaxy, the solar winds have combined to create one massive outflow of charged particles, which is known as a superwind. You can see all this galactic tumult in the photo up top, courtesy of the Hubble telescope. You can also click to expand for a much larger look at what’s going on. The Cigar Galaxy recently entered a chaotic period after it passed very close to nearby galaxy M81, and now this galaxy is pumping out huge quantities of ionized hydrogen gas, which glows red in this photo. These hydrogen filaments are about 10,000 light-years across. All this chaos in the Cigar Galaxy, which is about 12 million light-years away, has helped make it the brightest object in the sky when viewed in infrared wavelengths. Via NASA. For more on superwinds, go here.

54

thepredatorblog: Jellies (by OtakuPrincess♥)

14

drethinks: wqas

29

20

wolfnmoon: Dust scatter light from blue stars in Orion, causing the glow in nebula IC 2118