The Massive Stars in Westerlund 1
Our Sun is pretty damn big — so big in fact that it has a volume of 1.3 million Earths — but our Sun has nothing on the largest Star inside the star cluster Westerlund 1. The biggest star inside...
How do you date objects?
How do you date objects? How do you date Meteorites Decay Constant We’ve done half-life as a way of understanding radioactive decay Another way is the use of the term, Gamma It’s done in the units of yr-1...
NGC 6357: Stellar Wonderland
For reasons unknown, NGC 6357 is forming some of the most massive stars ever discovered. This complex wonderland of star formation consists of numerous filaments of dust and gas surrounding huge cavities of massive star clusters. The intricate patterns are...
The Magnificent Horsehead Nebula
Sculpted by stellar winds and radiation, a magnificent interstellar dust cloud by chance has assumed this recognizable shape. Fittingly named the Horsehead Nebula, it is some 1,500 light-years distant, embedded in the vast Orion cloud complex. About five light-years “tall”,...
Sharpless 308: Star Bubble
Blown by fast winds from a hot, massive star, this cosmic bubble is huge. Cataloged as Sharpless 2-308 it lies some 5,200 light-years away toward the constellation of the Big Dog (Canis Major) and covers slightly more of the sky...
The Cartwheel Galaxy from Hubble
To some, it looks like the wheel of a cart. In fact, because of its outward oval appearance, the presence of a central galaxy, and their connection with what looks like the spokes of a wheel, the galaxy on the...
Southern Jupiter from Perijove 3
Southern Jupiter looms some 37,000 kilometers away in this JunoCam image from December 11. The image data was captured near Juno’s third perijove or closest approach to Jupiter, the spacecraft still in its 53 day long looping orbit. With the...
The Lagoon Nebula in High Definition
Stars are battling gas and dust in the Lagoon Nebula but the photographers are winning. Also known as M8, this photogenic nebula is visible even without binoculars towards the constellation of Sagittarius. The energetic processes of star formation create not...
Over Saturns Turbulent North Pole
The Cassini spacecraft’s Grand Finale at Saturn has begun. The Grand Finale will allow Cassini to explore Saturn and some of Saturn’s moons and rings in unprecedented detail. The first phase started two weeks ago when a close flyby of...
Aurora over Jupiters South Pole from Juno
Why is there a glowing oval over Jupiter’s South Pole? Aurora. Near the closest part of its first pass near Jupiter in August, NASA’s robotic spacecraft Juno captured this dramatic infrared image of a bright auroral ring. Auroras are caused...