Quibus Astronomicae - space and the cosmos

03/04/2014

Quibus Astronomicae - space and the cosmos's cover photo

17/02/2013

Explore the Universe with Quibus Astronomicae - space and the cosmos

The nebula Messier 78

Also known as NGC 2068, is a reflection nebula in the constellation Orion. It was discovered by Pierre Méchain in 1780 and included by Charles Messier in his catalog of comet-like objects that same year.
M78 is the brightest diffuse reflection nebula of a group of nebulae that include NGC 2064, NGC 2067 and NGC 2071.
This group belongs to the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex and is about 1,600 light years distant from Earth. M78 is easily found in small telescopes as a hazy patch and involves two stars of 10th magnitude. These two stars, HD 38563A and HD 38563B, are responsible for making the cloud of dust in M78 visible by reflecting their light.
About 45 variable stars of the T Tauri type, young stars still in the process of formation, as well as some 17 Herbig-Haro objects are known in M78.

Credit: ESO /Igor Chekalin



This next description is in Spanish - if someone would care to translate it for the rest of us :)

M78 no se está escondiendo realmente en el cielo nocturno del planeta Tierra.

Situada a unos 1.600 años luz de distancia y ubicada en la rica en nebulosas constelación de Orión, la grande y brillante nebulosa de reflexión es bien conocida para los observadores del cielo con telescopio.
Pero esta espléndida imagen de M78 fue seleccionada como ganadora de la competición de astrofotografía Tesoros Ocultos 2010.

Celebrada por el European Southern Observatory (ESO), la competición retó a astrónomos aficionados a procesar datos del archivo astronómico del ESO para buscar gemas cósmicas ocultas.
La imagen ganadora muestra increíbles detalles dentro de la azulada M78 (centro) abrazada por nubes de polvo oscuras, junto con otra nebulosa de reflexión más pequeña de la región, NGC 2071 (arriba).

La recientemente descubierta Nebulosa McNeil, amarillenta e incluso más compacta, llama la atención en la parte inferior a la derecha del centro.
Basada en datos de la cámara WFI del ESO y el telescopio de 2,2 metros de La Silla, Chile, esta imagen se extiende alrededor de apenas 0,5 grados en el cielo.
Eso se corresponde con 15 años luz a la distancia estimada de M78.

Créditos: ESO /Igor Chekalin

17/02/2013

Many nebulae or stars form from the gravitational collapse of gas in the interstellar medium or ISM. As the material collapses under its own weight, massive stars may form in the center, and their ultraviolet radiation ionises the surrounding gas, making it visible at optical wavelengths. Examples of these types of nebulae are the Rosette Nebula and the Pelican Nebula. The size of these nebulae, known as HII regions, varies depending on the size of the original cloud of gas. These are sites where star formation occurs. The formed stars are sometimes known as a young, loose cluster.
Some nebulae are formed as the result of supernova explosions, the death throes of massive, short-lived stars. The materials thrown off from the supernova explosion are ionized by the energy and the compact object that it can produce. One of the best examples of this is the Crab Nebula, in Ta**us. The supernova event was recorded in the year 1054 and is labelled SN 1054. The compact object that was created after the explosion lies in the center of the Crab Nebula and is a neutron star.
Other nebulae may form as planetary nebulae. This is the final stage of a low-mass star's life, like Earth's Sun. Stars with a mass up to 8-10 solar masses evolve into red giants and slowly lose their outer layers during pulsations in their atmospheres. When a star has lost enough material, its temperature increases and the ultraviolet radiation it emits can ionize the surrounding nebula that it has thrown off. The nebula is 97% Hydrogen and 3% Helium with trace materials. The main goal in this stage is to achieve equilibrium.

Other types of Nebulae;
Diffuse Nebulae, Planetary nebulae, Protoplanetary nebula, Supernova remnants.

19/01/2012

Black Holes May Turboboost Super-Civilizations : Discovery News

Black Holes May Turboboost Super-Civilizations : Discovery News

A consortium of super civilizations might pool resources to build a chain of power stations encircling the supermassive black hole at the core of our galaxy.

29/12/2011

NGC 2403 in Camelopardalis

Credit: Spitzer, NASA, STScI

29/08/2011

For at least 20 years, the textbook view has been that it takes a long time to cook a planet. Little by little — says the old recipe — clumps of solid mass form within the gas, dust and ice that whirl like pizza dough around a young star. Gravity gathers bits of dust, which merge into boulder-sized chunks, which in turn coalesce into bigger rocks.

In about a million years — according to this recipe — these rocks become planets, and over the next few million years, gas from the disk settles around some of these young planets to grow Jupiter-size gas giants, which have most of their mass in a gaseous envelope surrounding the solid core. According to this view, called the “core-accretion model,” it would take as much as ten million years for a gas giant planet to form.

The core-accretion model first came up for rethinking, says Quinn, in the early 90s, when the Hubble Space Telescope was able to see these gaseous protoplanetary disks (or proplyds). Astronomers realized that these disks can’t last for a long time, roughly a million years, because the gas is rapidly cooked away by radiation from nearby stars.

Still, core accretion held up as a theory, because — so the thinking went — massive planets like Jupiter and Saturn are relatively rare. But the Marcy and Butler team carefully surveyed about 1,000 stars and showed that roughly one out of 10 has a planet, probably more, with most of them gas giants, from roughly the size of Jupiter to ten times larger.

“Now,” says Quinn, “we see that planet formation is not particularly special, and this doesn’t jibe with the standard model. If a gas giant planet can’t form quickly, it probably won’t form at all.”

05/05/2011

Jean-Baptiste Faure: Hubble view of lopsided NGC 2442, the Meathook Galaxy

Jean-Baptiste Faure: Hubble view of lopsided NGC 2442, the Meathook Galaxy

09/04/2011

Courtesy of Spitzer, NASA and STScI

10/03/2011

Star clusters or star clouds are groups of stars. Two types of star clusters can be distinguished: globular clusters are tight groups of hundreds of thousands of very old stars which are gravitationally bound, while open clusters, a more loosely clustered group of stars, generally contain less than a few hundred members, and are often very young. Open clusters become disrupted over time by the gravitational influence of giant molecular clouds as they move through the galaxy, but cluster members will continue to move in broadly the same direction through space even though they are no longer gravitationally bound; they are then known as a stellar association, sometimes also referred to as a moving group.
Star clusters visible to the naked eye include Pleiades, Hyades and the Beehive Cluster.

08/02/2011

Moon shot taken by me (Astronomer Bilal). By pressing a Sony Cybershot 7.2 megapixel camera against Celestron 8" SCT at 80x magnification