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WFPC2--Horsehead Nebula
In honor of the 11th birthda …
4/24/01
Date 4/24/01
Description In honor of the 11th birthday of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, and by popular demand, the Hubble team has released this new image of the Horsehead nebula, taken by its Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2), designed and built by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. Last year, 5,000 online voters, including students, teachers, and professional and amateur astronomers, chose the nebula as an astronomical target for Hubble to observe. Rising from a sea of dust and gas like a giant seahorse, the Horsehead nebula is one of the most photographed objects in the sky. Hubble's WFPC2 camera took a close-up look at this heavenly icon, revealing the cloud's intricate structure. The Horsehead, also known as Barnard 33, is a cold, dark cloud of gas and dust silhouetted against the bright red nebula IC 434. The bright area at the top left edge is a young star still embedded in its nursery of gas and dust. But radiation from this hot star is eroding the stellar nursery. The top of the nebula also is being sculpted by radiation from a massive star located out of Hubble's field-of-view. The nebula was first discovered on a photographic plate in the late 1800s. It is located in the constellation Orion just south of the bright star Zeta Orionis, which is easily visible to the unaided eye as the left-hand star in the line of three that form Orion's Belt. This image was composed by the Hubble Heritage Team at the Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md. The team superimposed Hubble data onto ground-based data taken by Nigel A. Sharp at the .9-meter (35-inch) telescope at the National Science Foundation's Kitt Peak National Observatory near Tucson, Ariz. Additional images and an animation of the Horsehead nebula are available at http://heritage.stsci.edu/public/2001may/supplemental.html . NASA's Hubble Space Telescope was launched on April 24, 1990. The Hubble is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA). JPL, which designed and built the WFPC2 camera, is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Additional information about the Hubble Space Telescope and more images are available at http://www.stsci.edu . More information about WFPC2 is at http://wfpc2.jpl.nasa.gov . Image Credit: NASA, NOAO, ESA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) Acknowledgment: K. Noll (Hubble Heritage PI/STScI), C. Luginbuhl (USNO), F. Hamilton (Hubble Heritage/STScI) #####
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.
Scientists Track "Perfect St …
Title Scientists Track "Perfect Storm" on Mars
General Information What is a Space Science Update? Major Hubble discoveries on NASA television ... Astronomers explain their Hubble discoveries at a press conference, called a Space Science Update (SSU), broadcast on NASA television. The SSU includes a question and answer session with members of the media. Back to top [ #top ]
Scientists Track "Perfect St …
Title Scientists Track "Perfect Storm" on Mars
General Information What is a Space Science Update? Major Hubble discoveries on NASA television ... Astronomers explain their Hubble discoveries at a press conference, called a Space Science Update (SSU), broadcast on NASA television. The SSU includes a question and answer session with members of the media. Back to top [ #top ]
Scientists Track "Perfect St …
Title Scientists Track "Perfect Storm" on Mars
General Information What is a Space Science Update? Major Hubble discoveries on NASA television ... Astronomers explain their Hubble discoveries at a press conference, called a Space Science Update (SSU), broadcast on NASA television. The SSU includes a question and answer session with members of the media. Back to top [ #top ]
Hubble Views Ancient Storm i …
Title Hubble Views Ancient Storm in the Atmosphere of Jupiter
General Information What is Hubble Heritage? A monthly showcase of new and archival Hubble images. Go to the Heritage site. When 17th-century astronomers first turned their telescopes to Jupiter, they noted a conspicuous reddish spot on the giant planet. This Great Red Spot is still present in Jupiter's atmosphere, more than 300 years later. It is now known that it is a vast storm, spinning like a cyclone. Unlike a low-pressure hurricane in the Caribbean Sea, however, the Red Spot rotates in a counterclockwise direction in the Southern Hemisphere, showing that it is a high-pressure system. Winds inside this Jovian storm reach speeds of about 270 mph. The Red Spot is the largest known storm in the solar system. With a diameter of 15,400 miles, it is almost twice the size of the entire Earth and one-sixth the diameter of Jupiter itself. However, the Red Spot does change its shape, size, and color, sometimes dramatically. Such changes are demonstrated in these Hubble telescope pictures.
Scientists Track "Perfect St …
Title Scientists Track "Perfect Storm" on Mars
General Information What is a Space Science Update? Major Hubble discoveries on NASA television ... Astronomers explain their Hubble discoveries at a press conference, called a Space Science Update (SSU), broadcast on NASA television. The SSU includes a question and answer session with members of the media. Back to top [ #top ]
Scientists Track "Perfect St …
Title Scientists Track "Perfect Storm" on Mars
General Information What is a Space Science Update? Major Hubble discoveries on NASA television ... Astronomers explain their Hubble discoveries at a press conference, called a Space Science Update (SSU), broadcast on NASA television. The SSU includes a question and answer session with members of the media. Back to top [ #top ]
Scientists Track "Perfect St …
Title Scientists Track "Perfect Storm" on Mars
General Information What is a Space Science Update? Major Hubble discoveries on NASA television ... Astronomers explain their Hubble discoveries at a press conference, called a Space Science Update (SSU), broadcast on NASA television. The SSU includes a question and answer session with members of the media. Back to top [ #top ]
Scientists Track "Perfect St …
Title Scientists Track "Perfect Storm" on Mars
General Information What is a Space Science Update? Major Hubble discoveries on NASA television ... Astronomers explain their Hubble discoveries at a press conference, called a Space Science Update (SSU), broadcast on NASA television. The SSU includes a question and answer session with members of the media. Back to top [ #top ]
Scientists Track "Perfect St …
Title Scientists Track "Perfect Storm" on Mars
General Information What is a Space Science Update? Major Hubble discoveries on NASA television ... Astronomers explain their Hubble discoveries at a press conference, called a Space Science Update (SSU), broadcast on NASA television. The SSU includes a question and answer session with members of the media. Back to top [ #top ]
Scientists Track "Perfect St …
Title Scientists Track "Perfect Storm" on Mars
General Information What is a Space Science Update? Major Hubble discoveries on NASA television ... Astronomers explain their Hubble discoveries at a press conference, called a Space Science Update (SSU), broadcast on NASA television. The SSU includes a question and answer session with members of the media. Back to top [ #top ]
Scientists Track "Perfect St …
Title Scientists Track "Perfect Storm" on Mars
General Information What is a Space Science Update? Major Hubble discoveries on NASA television ... Astronomers explain their Hubble discoveries at a press conference, called a Space Science Update (SSU), broadcast on NASA television. The SSU includes a question and answer session with members of the media. Back to top [ #top ]
Scientists Track "Perfect St …
Title Scientists Track "Perfect Storm" on Mars
General Information What is a Space Science Update? Major Hubble discoveries on NASA television ... Astronomers explain their Hubble discoveries at a press conference, called a Space Science Update (SSU), broadcast on NASA television. The SSU includes a question and answer session with members of the media. Back to top [ #top ]
Scientists Track "Perfect St …
Title Scientists Track "Perfect Storm" on Mars
General Information What is a Space Science Update? Major Hubble discoveries on NASA television ... Astronomers explain their Hubble discoveries at a press conference, called a Space Science Update (SSU), broadcast on NASA television. The SSU includes a question and answer session with members of the media. Back to top [ #top ]
Freewheeling Galaxies Collid …
Title Freewheeling Galaxies Collide in a Blaze of Star Birth
General Information What is Hubble Heritage? A monthly showcase of new and archival Hubble images. Go to the Heritage site. Back to top [ #top ]
Freewheeling Galaxies Collid …
Title Freewheeling Galaxies Collide in a Blaze of Star Birth
General Information What is Hubble Heritage? A monthly showcase of new and archival Hubble images. Go to the Heritage site. Back to top [ #top ]
Freewheeling Galaxies Collid …
Title Freewheeling Galaxies Collide in a Blaze of Star Birth
General Information What is Hubble Heritage? A monthly showcase of new and archival Hubble images. Go to the Heritage site. Back to top [ #top ]
Heritage Project Celebrates …
Title Heritage Project Celebrates Five Years of Harvesting the Best Images from Hubble Space Telescope
General Information What is Hubble Heritage? A monthly showcase of new and archival Hubble images. Go to the Heritage site. Back to top [ #top ]
Happy Sweet Sixteen, Hubble …
Title Happy Sweet Sixteen, Hubble Telescope!
Happy Sweet Sixteen, Hubble …
Title Happy Sweet Sixteen, Hubble Telescope!
A Close-Up of the Lagoon's H …
Title A Close-Up of the Lagoon's Hourglass
Explanation In the central part of the Lagoon Nebula [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap960807.html ] lies the above pictured Hourglass Nebula [ http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/messier/more/m008_det.html ]. In this region of recent star formation, obscuring dark lanes of dust [ http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-article_query?bibcode=1979AJ%2E%2E%2E%2E%2E84%2E1328T&page=1&plate_select=NO&type=GIF ] permeate the red-glowing hydrogen gas. Blocking some of the gas cloud from our view, they chance to create a glowing shape that appears from our vantage point like an hourglass [ http://www.skab.se/~riccard/BIGhourglass.html ]. In the upper right of this picture [ http://scivax.stsci.edu/~hamilton/nuggets/HST_NUGGETS.HTML ] from the Hubble Space Telescope [ http://www.stsci.edu/pubinfo/HSToverview.html ] is a bright young blue star from the open cluster NGC 6530 [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap960127.html ] - visible below center in yesterday's APOD [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap960820.html ]. A recent study of the Lagoon Nebula [ http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-article_query?bibcode=1990ApJ%2E%2E%2E357%2E%2E502M&page=1&plate_select=NO&type=GIF ] (M [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/lib/glossary.html#messier ]8), has shown that this emission nebula [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/lib/emission.html ] houses large magnetic fields [ http://polaris.phys.ualberta.ca/users/greeniaus/Phys238B1/MagneticField/MagneticFieldTopic1.html ] and unusually large dust particles [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/lib/glossary.html#dust ].
A Close-Up of the Lagoon Neb …
Title A Close-Up of the Lagoon Nebula
Explanation Ribbons of red-glowing gas [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/lib/glossary.html#hydrogen ] and dark dust [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/lib/glossary.html#dust ] surround massive young stars in this close-up of the Lagoon Nebula [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap960127.html ] taken by the Hubble Space Telescope [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap950810.html ]. The Lagoon Nebula [ http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/billa/twn/n6523x.html ] is relatively close and bright - it appears larger than the Full Moon [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap960730.html ] and is visible even without a telescope [ http://aci.mta.ca/TheUmbrella/Physics/Astronomy/Telescope.html ]. Light takes about 5000 years to reach here from there. The Lagoon Nebula [ http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/messier/m/m008.html ] houses the open star cluster [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/lib/open_clusters.html ] M [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/lib/glossary.html#messier ]8. This photograph [ http://scivax.stsci.edu/~hamilton/nuggets/HST_NUGGETS.HTML ] is combination of exposures taken in the red, green and ultraviolet. The unusual bright central part of the Lagoon Nebula [ http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-article_query?bibcode=1990ApJ%2E%2E%2E357%2E%2E502M&page=1&plate_select=NO&type=GIF ] (lower left in this image) is known as the Hourglass Nebula.
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