APOD 3.8 M16: Pillars of Creation

M16, also known as the Eagle Nebula, is one of the most famous images ever to come out of the Hubble Telescope. Taken in 1995 by Hubble, it was recently captured by the Chandra X-ray Observatory. The picture is still fascinating. The pillars are light years in length and at the ends of each pillar are thousands of young star nursuries. The nubula is 7,000 light years away and in the constellation of Serpens.

APOD 3.7 Vela Supernova Remnant in Visible Light

In the constellation of Vela, a star exploded about 11,000 years ago. The remenents of the supernova can be seen today. Spanning 100 light-years across, the picture is captured in visible light. The boundary of the shock wave, however, can be seen in x-ray. At the center of the supernova, the dead star, now a Pulsar, can be seen. It is as dense as nuclear matter and spins over 10x a second.

Planetary Nebula Links to Information and Pictures

http://www.oarval.org/PNeb.htm
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0107/ngc6537_hst_big.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_Nebula
http://heritage.stsci.edu/2000/28/pne.html
http://www.noao.edu/jacoby/
http://www.noao.edu/image_gallery/planetary_nebulae.html
http://www.phys.ncku.edu.tw/~astrolab/mirrors/apod_e/planetary_nebulae.html
http://www.seds.org/messier/planetar.html
http://fusedweb.pppl.gov/CPEP/Chart_Pages/5.Plasmas/Nebula/Graphics/Space/RingNebula.AAO.lg.gif
http://fusedweb.pppl.gov/CPEP/Chart_Pages/5.Plasmas/Nebula/Planetary.html
http://www.astro.washington.edu/balick/WFPC2/
http://zebu.uoregon.edu/~imamura/208/feb22/feb22.html
http://images.google.ca/images?hl=en&q=Planetary%20nebula&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/planetary_nebulae.html
http://ad.usno.navy.mil/pne/gallery.html
http://www.seds.org/messier/nebula.html
http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/PR/97/pn/photo-gallery.html
http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/nebula/planetary/
http://www.astro.washington.edu/balick/
http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/1997/38/text/
http://www.williams.edu/Astronomy/research/PN/nebulae/
http://www.astronomynotes.com/evolutn/s6.htm
http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/P/planneb.html
http://www.astro.psu.edu/users/rbc/res_hst.html
http://www.blackskies.org/links.html
http://bioch.szote.u-szeged.hu/astrojan/nebula1.htm
http://heritage.stsci.edu/2000/28/big.html

Feb. 9, 2007
AT: 6:40 pm

I saw Uranus!!!!!!!!! It was partly cloudy towards the west, but Uranus was just above the cloud line so I was able to see it. Venus of course was obvious to see, but Mercury was covered by clouds and houses. I only stayed out a minute or so cause I had to eat dinner, but I SAW URANUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

APOD 3.6 Sun Storm: A Coronal Mass Ejection

The Sun (is a mass of incandescent gas...), true, but it is also volatile as this picture shows. Taken by the sun orbiter SOHO in X-ray, you can see the huge Coronal Mass Ejections (CME) erupting from the sun. The view spans 2 million km away from the sun, so you can guess just how big the CMEs are. At the Solar Activity minimum, a CME can eject once a week, but at the peak, it can erupt up to twice a week. Very dangerous if it heads towards earth. The sun in the picture has been overlayed by a view of it in ultraviolet light.

APOD 3.6 Sun Storm: A Coronal Mass Ejection

The Sun (is a mass of incandescent gas...), true, but it is also volatile as this picture shows. Taken by the sun orbiter SOHO in X-ray, you can see the huge Coronal Mass Ejections (CME) erupting from the sun. The view spans 2 million km away from the sun, so you can guess just how big the CMEs are. At the Solar Activity minimum, a CME can eject once a week, but at the peak, it can erupt up to twice a week. Very dangerous if it heads towards earth. The sun in the picture has been overlayed by a view of it in ultraviolet light.

2/7/07 Visiual Magnitude Exercise: I hope they're right, for a moment I got confused if lower

magnitude numbers ment a brighter star or not.

Unknown Stars--
eta Aurigae- 3.3
beta Eridani- 2
gamma Orionis- 2
beta Tauri-1.5
delta Orionis- 2.8
zeta Orionis- 2
mu Geminorum- 3
xi Geminorum- 3.5
alpha Canis Majorum- (-1)
eta Canis Majorum- 2
alpha Geminorum- 1.8

Also- I glimpsed Venus drivig home from work, and another star about 7 degrees away. I don't know if Mercury is still visible or not, if it is than that 'star' might have been mercury.

APOD 3.5 Flame Nebula Close-Up

The Flame Nebula, aka NGC 2024, is in the constellation Orion and is 1500 light-years away from the Orion molecular cloud complex which also includes the Orion Nebula. This cloud is what makes the reddish color of the Nebula. The glow is caused by ionized hydrogen recombining with electrons. The source of the Flame's energy is hidden by the dark dust cloud in center of the picture. However in infrared, hot young stars are found behind the cloud and at least one of these stars is the cause of the energy.