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The Mark of a Dying Star
Title The Mark of a Dying Star
Description Six hundred and fifty light-years away in the constellation Aquarius, a dead star about the size of Earth, is refusing to fade away peacefully. In death, it is spewing out massive amounts of hot gas and intense ultraviolet radiation, creating a spectacular object called a "planetary nebula." In this false-color image, NASA's Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes have teamed up to capture the complex structure of the object, called the Helix nebula, in unprecedented detail. The composite picture is made up of visible data from Hubble and infrared data from Spitzer. The dead star, called a white dwarf, can be seen at the center of the image as a white dot. All of the colorful gaseous material seen in the image was once part of the central star, but was lost in the death throes of the star on its way to becoming a white dwarf. The intense ultraviolet radiation being released by the white dwarf is heating and destabilizing the molecules in its surrounding environment, starting from the inside out. Like an electric stovetop slowly heating up from the center first, the hottest and most unstable gas molecules can be seen at the center of the nebula as wisps of blue. The transition to more stable and cooler molecules is clearly depicted as the color of the gas changes from very hot (blue) to hot (yellow) and warm (red). A striking feature of the Helix, first revealed by ground-based images, is its collection of thousands of filamentary structures, or strands of gas. In this image the filaments can be seen under the transparent blue gas as red lines radiating out from the center. Astronomers believe that the molecules in these filaments are able to stay cooler and more stable because dense clumps of materials are shielding them from ultraviolet radiation. This image is a composite showing ionized H-alpha (green) and O III (blue) gases from the Hubble Space Telescope, and molecular hydrogen (red) from Spitzer observations at 4.5 and 8.0 microns.
The Mark of a Dying Star
Title The Mark of a Dying Star
Description Six hundred and fifty light-years away in the constellation Aquarius, a dead star about the size of Earth, is refusing to fade away peacefully. In death, it is spewing out massive amounts of hot gas and intense ultraviolet radiation, creating a spectacular object called a "planetary nebula." In this false-color image, NASA's Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes have teamed up to capture the complex structure of the object, called the Helix nebula, in unprecedented detail. The composite picture is made up of visible data from Hubble and infrared data from Spitzer. The dead star, called a white dwarf, can be seen at the center of the image as a white dot. All of the colorful gaseous material seen in the image was once part of the central star, but was lost in the death throes of the star on its way to becoming a white dwarf. The intense ultraviolet radiation being released by the white dwarf is heating and destabilizing the molecules in its surrounding environment, starting from the inside out. Like an electric stovetop slowly heating up from the center first, the hottest and most unstable gas molecules can be seen at the center of the nebula as wisps of blue. The transition to more stable and cooler molecules is clearly depicted as the color of the gas changes from very hot (blue) to hot (yellow) and warm (red). A striking feature of the Helix, first revealed by ground-based images, is its collection of thousands of filamentary structures, or strands of gas. In this image the filaments can be seen under the transparent blue gas as red lines radiating out from the center. Astronomers believe that the molecules in these filaments are able to stay cooler and more stable because dense clumps of materials are shielding them from ultraviolet radiation. This image is a composite showing ionized H-alpha (green) and O III (blue) gases from the Hubble Space Telescope, and molecular hydrogen (red) from Spitzer observations at 4.5 and 8.0 microns.
Cometary Knots Around A Dyin …
Title Cometary Knots Around A Dying Star
Full Description These gigantic, tadpole-shaped objects are probably the result of a dying star's last gasps. Dubbed "cometary knots" because their glowing heads and gossamer tails resemble comets, the gaseous objects probably were formed during a star's final stages of life. Hubble astronomer C. Robert O'Dell and graduate student Kerry P. Handron of Rice University in Houston, Texas discovered thousands of these knots with the Hubble Space Telescope while exploring the Helix nebula, the closest planetary nebula to Earth at 450 light-years away in the constellation Aquarius. Although ground-based telescopes have revealed such objects, astronomers have never seen so many of them. The most visible knots all lie along the inner edge of the doomed star's ring, trillions of miles away from the star's nucleus. Although these gaseous knots appear small, they're actually huge. Each gaseous head is at least twice the size of our solar system, each tail stretches for 100 billion miles, about 1,000 times the distance between the Earth and the Sun. Astronomers theorize that the doomed star spews hot, lower-density gas from its surface, which collides with cooler, higher-density gas that had been ejected 10,000 years before. The crash fragments the smooth cloud surrounding the star into smaller, denser finger-like droplets, like dripping paint. This image was taken in August, 1994 with Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2. The red light depicts nitrogen emission ([NII] 6584A), green, hydrogen (H-alpha, 6563A), and blue, oxygen (5007A).
Date 08/01/1994
NASA Center Hubble Space Telescope Center
Explosive Evidence
Title Explosive Evidence
Full Description This view of the damaged Apollo 13 Service Module (SM) was photographed from the Lunar Module/Command Module following SM jettisoning. As seen here, an entire SM panel was blown away by the apparent explosion of oxygen tank number two located in Sector 4 of the SM. Two of the three fuel cells are visible just forward (above) the heavily damaged area. Three fuel cells, two oxygen tanks, and two hydrogen tanks are located in Sector 4. The damaged area is located above the S-Band high gain antenna. Nearest the camera is the Service Propulsion System (SPS) engine and nozzle. The damage to the SM caused the Apollo 13 crewmen to use the Lunar Module (LM) as a "lifeboat." The Lunar Module "Aquarius" was jettisoned just prior to Earth reentry by the Command Module "Odyssey".
Date 04/17/1970
NASA Center Johnson Space Center
Hubble Finds Thousands of Ga …
Title Hubble Finds Thousands of Gaseous Fragments Surrounding a Dying Star
Hubble Makes Precise Measure …
Title Hubble Makes Precise Measure of Extrasolar World's True Mass
Iridescent Glory of Nearby P …
Title Iridescent Glory of Nearby Planetary Nebula Showcased on Astronomy Day
A New Twist on an Old Nebula
Title A New Twist on an Old Nebula
A New Twist on an Old Nebula
Title A New Twist on an Old Nebula
Astronaut James Lovell Offic …
Name of Image Astronaut James Lovell Official Portrait
Date of Image 1966-09-09
Full Description This is the official NASA portrait of astronaut James Lovell. Captain Lovell was selected as an Astronaut by NASA in September 1962. He has since served as backup pilot for the Gemini 4 flight and backup Commander for the Gemini 9 flight, as well as backup Commander to Neil Armstrong for the Apollo 11 lunar landing mission. On December 4, 1965, he and Frank Borman were launched into space on the history making Gemini 7 mission. The flight lasted 330 hours and 35 minutes and included the first rendezvous of two manned maneuverable spacecraft. The Gemini 12 mission, commanded by Lovell with Pilot Edwin Aldrin, began on November 11, 1966 for a 4-day, 59-revolution flight that brought the Gemini program to a successful close. Lovell served as Command Module Pilot and Navigator on the epic six-day journey of Apollo 8, the first manned Saturn V liftoff responsible for allowing the first humans to leave the gravitational influence of Earth. He completed his fourth mission as Spacecraft Commander of the Apollo 13 flight, April 11-17, 1970, and became the first man to journey twice to the moon. The Apollo 13 mission was cut short due to a failure of the Service Module cryogenic oxygen system. Aborting the lunar course, Lovell and fellow crewmen, John L. Swigert and Fred W. Haise, working closely with Houston ground controllers, converted their lunar module, Aquarius, into an effective lifeboat that got them safely back to Earth. Captain Lovell held the record for time in space with a total of 715 hours and 5 minutes until surpassed by the Skylab flights. On March 1, 1973, Captain Lovell retired from the Navy and the Space Program.
NGC 7293: The Helix Nebula
Title NGC 7293: The Helix Nebula
Explanation A mere seven hundred light years from Earth, in the constellation Aquarius [ http://hawastsoc.org/deepsky/aqr/index.html ], a sun-like star is dying. Its last few thousand years have produced the Helix Nebula [ http://www.seds.org/messier/xtra/ngc/n7293.html ] (NGC 7293), a well studied and nearby example of a Planetary Nebula [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetary_nebula ], typical of this final phase of stellar evolution. Nearly 11 hours [ http://www.astronomie.be/hambsch/namibia07/ n7293-halrgb_50f3.htm ] of exposure time have gone in to creating this remarkably deep view of the nebula. It shows details of the Helix's brighter inner region [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap030510.html ], about 3 light-years across, but also follows fainter outer halo [ http://www.ing.iac.es/~rcorradi/HALOES/ ] features that give the nebula a span of well over six light-years. The white dot at the Helix's center is this Planetary Nebula's hot, central star [ http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/1997/ 38/astrofile/ ]. A simple looking nebula at first glance, the Helix is now understood to have a surprisingly complex geometry [ http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2004/ 32/image/e/ ].
Asteroid 2002 NY40
Title Asteroid 2002 NY40
Explanation Asteroid 2002 NY40 [ http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2002/ 30jul_ny40.htm ] will fly by planet Earth early in the morning August 18 Universal Time (late in the evening August 17 Eastern Daylight Time). Approaching to within [ http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/ ] about 530,000 kilometers or 1.3 times the Earth-Moon distance 2002 NY40 [ http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/db?name=2002+NY40 ] will definitely not be close enough to pose any danger of collision. But it will be close enough and just bright enough for experienced skygazers to see this 800 meter wide space rock [ http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/nineplanets/nineplanets/ asteroids.html ] in a small telescope or binoculars as it glides quickly through northern skies [ http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2002/images/ny40/ skymap_ut.gif ] past the bright star Vega. It will also be close enough to ping with radar [ http://echo.jpl.nasa.gov/ ], and asteroid hunters using the large Arecibo radio telescope [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap981129.html ] in Puerto Rico expect to determine the three dimensional outline of 2002 NY40. Similar investigations of other near Earth [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap970120.html ] asteroids have revealed some surprising shapes [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000510.html ]. In this five minute time exposure, recorded at Cerro Tololo [ http://www.ctio.noao.edu/ ] Inter-American Observatory on August 14, 2002 NY40 shows itself as a long smudge as it moves against a background of faint stars in the constellation Aquarius [ http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/the_universe/ Constellations/aquarius.html ].
A Dark and Stormy Night
Title A Dark and Stormy Night
Explanation It was a dark and stormy night [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap030424.html ]. But on August 29th the red planet Mars, near its closest approach [ http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/2003/22/astrofile ] to Earth in almost 60,000 years, shone brightly in the sky against a background of stars in the constellation Aquarius [ http://allthesky.com/constellations/aquarius/ constell.html ]. In the foreground of this scary view [ http://www.allthesky.de/various/marsflash.html ], huge thunder clouds are lit by lightning strokes [ http://thunder.msfc.nasa.gov/primer/ ] from within. Mars [ http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/ ], of course, has nothing to do with storms on Earth, though both have the power to excite the imagination [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010331.html ] and wonder of Earthdwellers [ http://www.fourmilab.ch/etexts/www/warworlds/warw.html ]. And who knows [ http://www.cccoe.k12.ca.us/bats/welcome.html ] what luminous [ http://www.spaceweather.com/ ] sights you might see if you go out tonight? Have a safe and Happy Halloween [ http://kids.msfc.nasa.gov/events/ Halloween.asp ]!
Infrared Helix
Title Infrared Helix
Explanation Five hundred light years from Earth, in the constellation Aquarius [ http://bradley.bradley.edu/~dware/aquarius.html ], a sun-like star is dying. Its last few thousand years have produced the Helix [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap960417.html ], a well studied [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap960422.html ] and nearby example of a Planetary Nebula [ http://fusedweb.pppl.gov/CPEP/Chart_Pages/5.Plasmas/Nebula/ Planetary.html ] - typical of this final phase of stellar evolution [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap960117.html ]. The emission in this Infrared Space Observatory [ http://isowww.estec.esa.nl/ISO/ISO.html ] image of the Helix nebula comes mostly from the expanding shells of molecular hydrogen gas. Dust, normally expected in such nebulae, should also radiate strongly at infrared wavelengths but mysteriously seems to be absent here [ http://isowww.estec.esa.nl/activities/info/2597/iso18083.html ]. The culprit may may well be the Helix's central star, a contracting white dwarf [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap961203.html ]. This small but extremely hot star radiates most of its energy at short Ultraviolet wavelengths [ http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/learning_center/introduction/ emspectrum.html ] and is invisible in this infrared mage. Astronomers suspect that over time, this intense Ultraviolet radiation may have destroyed the dust [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap961119.html ]. The Sun is expected to go through its own [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/gifcity/interv.html ] Planetary Nebula phase ... in another 5 billion years.
A Planet For Gliese 876
Title A Planet For Gliese 876
Explanation Centered in this unremarkable, 1/4 degree wide patch of sky [ http://skyview.gsfc.nasa.gov ] in the constellation Aquarius [ http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~dolan/constellations/ constellations/Aquarius.html ] is the star Gliese 876. Gliese 876 [ http://ledas-www.star.le.ac.uk/arnie/ dbhlp_WOOLLEY.html#L3Sequence_Number ] is smaller than the Sun, only about 1/3 as massive, and too faint to be seen without a telescope. But it is known to be one of the nearest stars [ http://ledas-www.star.le.ac.uk/arnie/dbhlp_WOOLLEY.html#L1Overview ], only 15 light-years distant. Astronomers have just announced findings that imply Gliese 876 [ http://cannon.sfsu.edu/~gmarcy/planetsearch/gl876/gl876.html ] has a planet at least 1.6 times as massive as Jupiter - making this now one of the closest suspected planetary [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap961019.html ] systems. Like many recent discoveries [ http://cannon.sfsu.edu/~williams/planetsearch/planetsearch.html ], this planet's detection [ http://whyfiles.news.wisc.edu/017planet/search_techniques.html ] is not based on direct imaging [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap980529.html ] but on spectroscopic measurements of the periodic change in motion or "Doppler wobble" [ http://cannon.sfsu.edu/~gmarcy/planetsearch/tech/techpg.html ]produced in the parent star as the planet orbits. The Doppler wobble of Gliese 876 indicates [ http://cannon.sfsu.edu/~gmarcy/planetsearch/gl876/gl876.html ] that its planet orbits once every 61 days at an average distance of about 1/5 the radius of the Earth's orbit.
The Helix Nebula from Blanco …
Title The Helix Nebula from Blanco and Hubble
Explanation How did a star create the Helix nebula [ http://www.seds.org/messier/xtra/ngc/n7293.html ]? The shapes of planetary nebula [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/planetary_nebulae.html ] like the Helix [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap030510.html ] are important because they likely hold clues to how stars like the Sun [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/gifcity/interv.html ] end their lives. Recent observations by the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010806.html ] and the 4-meter Blanco Telescope [ http://www.ctio.noao.edu/telescopes/4m/base4m.html ] in Chile [ http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ci.html ], however, have shown the Helix is not really a simple helix [ http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Helix.html ]. Rather, it incorporates two nearly perpendicular disks as well as arcs, shocks, and even features not well understood [ http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/newsdesk/archive/releases/2004/32/text/ ]. Even so, many strikingly geometric symmetries remain. How a single Sun-like star created such beautiful yet geometric complexity [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap040910.html ] is a topic of research. The Helix Nebula is the nearest planetary nebula [ http://www.noao.edu/jacoby/pn_gallery.html ] to Earth, lies only about 700 light years [ http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/cosmic_distance.html ] away toward the constellation of Aquarius [ http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~dolan/constellations/constellations/Aquarius.html ], and spans about 3 light-years.
Aurora Iowa
Title Aurora Iowa
Explanation Early last Sunday morning stars were not the only lights in Iowa skies. The northern lights [ http://www.exploratorium.edu/learning_studio/ auroras/ ] also shone from the heavens, extending across the midwestern USA and other locations [ http://spaceweather.com/aurora/ gallery_01may05_page4.htm ] not often graced with auroral displays. The wide-ranging auroral activity was triggered as a coronal mass ejection [ http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/pickoftheweek/ ] - an energetic cloud of particles blasted outward from the Sun [ http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2005/05may_solarmyth.htm ] a few days earlier - collided with planet Earth's [ http://www-istp.gsfc.nasa.gov/istp/outreach/ geospace.html ] magnetosphere. Alerted to [ http://spaceweather.com/ ] conditions ripe for aurora [ http://www.pbase.com/stanzman/aurora_51505 ], photographer Stan Richard recorded this aparition over Saylorville Lake, near Des Moines. Bright planet Mars in the constellation Aquarius [ http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/the_universe/ Constellations/aquarius.html ] is above the horizon near the center of the eastward-looking view. While the colorful rays seem to end just above the water, they are actually at altitudes of 100 kilometers or more [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010210.html ].
Gliese 876 System Includes L …
Title Gliese 876 System Includes Large Terrestrial Planet
Explanation Is our Earth unique? In continuing efforts to answer this question, astronomers have now discovered [ http://exoplanets.org/gl876_web/press_release_NSF.htm ] an Earth-like planet orbiting a distant normal star. Previously over 150 gas-giant planets [ http://exoplanets.org/exoplanets_pub.html ] like Jupiter [ http://www.nineplanets.org/jupiter.html ] had been so discovered. Slight, fast, but regular wobbles [ http://exoplanets.org/gl876_web/gl876_tech.html ] of nearby small M [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap040418.html ]-dwarf [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_sequence ] star Gliese 876 showed evidence for a planet with a likely mass slightly higher than a minimum six times the mass of Earth. The planet's small mass indicates that it is likely terrestrial [ http://wind.cc.whecn.edu/~marquard/astronomy/terrestrial.htm ] in nature, similar in composition to the inner planets of our Solar System [ http://www.nineplanets.org/overview.html ]. If indeed made predominantly of rock, the planet's surface gravity [ http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/S/surfacegravity.html ] would not even be able to contain the gasses of a Jupiter-like planet. The newly discovered planet [ http://exoplanets.org/gl876_web/press_release_NSF.htm ] would not make a good vacation spot [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap050224.html ] for humans, however, as it orbits so close that the surface temperature probably tops a searing 200 degrees Celsius [ http://lamar.colostate.edu/~hillger/temps.htm ]. The system is illustrated in the above drawing [ http://exoplanets.org/gl876_web/gl876_graphics.html ] as seen from a hypothetical moon orbiting one of the two Jupiter-like planets already known [ http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/planets/Gl876.html ]. The newly discovered terrestrial-like planet is depicted in the insert. Gliese 876 [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap980626.html ] lies only 15 light-years [ http://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/questions/question19.html ] away and is visible with binoculars toward the constellation [ http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~dolan/constellations/extra/constellations.html ] of Aquarius [ http://www.astronomical.org/portal/modules/wfsection/article.php?articleid=4 ].
A Dark and Stormy Night
Title A Dark and Stormy Night
Explanation It was a dark and [ http://www.abc.net.au/centralvic/stories/s904089.htm ] stormy night [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap030424.html ]. But on 2003 August 29th the red planet Mars, near its closest approach [ http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/2003/22/astrofile ] to Earth in almost 60,000 years, shone brightly in the sky against a background of stars in the constellation Aquarius [ http://allthesky.com/constellations/aquarius/ constell.html ]. In the foreground of this scary view [ http://www.allthesky.de/various/marsflash.html ], huge thunder clouds are lit by lightning strokes [ http://thunder.msfc.nasa.gov/primer/ ] from within. Mars [ http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/ ], of course, has nothing to do with storms on Earth, though both have the power to excite the imagination [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010331.html ] and wonder of Earthdwellers [ http://www.fourmilab.ch/etexts/www/warworlds/warw.html ]. Tonight, the night before Halloween [ http://kids.msfc.nasa.gov/events/Halloween.asp ], Mars will also pass close [ http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2005/27oct_halloween.htm ] to the Earth, closer than it will come during the next thirteen years. And once again, the red planet Mars will look particularly bright, although much smaller and dimmer than the Moon [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap050808.html ] and even Venus.
Infrared Helix
Title Infrared Helix
Explanation Over six hundred light years from Earth, in the constellation Aquarius [ http://hawastsoc.org/deepsky/aqr/index.html ], a sun-like star is dying. Its last few thousand years have produced the Helix Nebula [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap041229.html ] (NGC 7293), a well studied [ http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/newsdesk/archive/releases/2004/ 32/text/ ] and nearby example of a Planetary Nebula [ http://www.noao.edu/jacoby/pn_gallery.html ], typical of this final phase of stellar evolution [ http://fusedweb.pppl.gov/CPEP/Chart_Pages/5.Plasmas/ Nebula/Planetary.html ]. Emission in this infrared Spitzer Space Telescope image [ http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/Media/releases/ ssc2006-01/index.shtml ] of the Helix comes mostly from the nebula's molecular hydrogen gas. The gas appears [ http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/Media/releases/ssc2006-01/ release.shtml ] to be clumpy, forming thousands of comet-shaped knots each spanning about twice the size of our solar system. Bluer, more energetic radiation is seen to come from the heads with redder emission from the tails, suggesting that they are more shielded from the central star's [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap030614.html ] winds and intense ultraviolet radiation. The nebula itself is about 2.5 light-years across. The Sun is expected to go through its own [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/gifcity/ interv.html ] Planetary Nebula phase ... in another 5 billion years.
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The Mark of a Dying Star
PIA03678
Advanced Camera for Surveys …
Title The Mark of a Dying Star
Original Caption Released with Image Six hundred and fifty light-years away in the constellation Aquarius, a dead star about the size of Earth, is refusing to fade away peacefully. In death, it is spewing out massive amounts of hot gas and intense ultraviolet radiation, creating a spectacular object called a "planetary nebula." In this false-color image, NASA's Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes have teamed up to capture the complex structure of the object, called the Helix nebula, in unprecedented detail. The composite picture is made up of visible data from Hubble and infrared data from Spitzer. The dead star, called a white dwarf, can be seen at the center of the image as a white dot. All of the colorful gaseous material seen in the image was once part of the central star, but was lost in the death throes of the star on its way to becoming a white dwarf. The intense ultraviolet radiation being released by the white dwarf is heating and destabilizing the molecules in its surrounding environment, starting from the inside out. Like an electric stovetop slowly heating up from the center first, the hottest and most unstable gas molecules can be seen at the center of the nebula as wisps of blue. The transition to more stable and cooler molecules is clearly depicted as the color of the gas changes from very hot (blue) to hot (yellow) and warm (red). A striking feature of the Helix, first revealed by ground-based images, is its collection of thousands of filamentary structures, or strands of gas. In this image the filaments can be seen under the transparent blue gas as red lines radiating out from the center. Astronomers believe that the molecules in these filaments are able to stay cooler and more stable because dense clumps of materials are shielding them from ultraviolet radiation. This image is a composite showing ionized H-alpha (green) and O III (blue) gases from the Hubble Space Telescope, and molecular hydrogen (red) from Spitzer observations at 4.5 and 8.0 microns.
General Description Behind the Scenes : TRAINING Imagery
Six minute exposure of stars …
Title Six minute exposure of stars taken through airlock on Skylab
Description A six minute exposure of stars in the constellation Aquarius and others taken with a 35mm camera through the antisolar scientific airlock in the Orbital Workshop (OWS) of the Skylab space station in Earth orbit. Crewmen of the second manned Skylab mission took this picture as part of the Zodiacal Light/Gegenschein (S073) experiment. Most of the stars seen here belong to the constellation Aquarius and range in the stellar magnitude from +3, +6, +9. The dark patch on the right of the photograph is due to shielding of the sky by part of the experiment hardware.
Date Taken 1973-09-04
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