A portrait of creative chaos, yet so zen – at least from 6,500 light-years away 😉 • NASA > APOD > Pillars of Creation (2022 October 20) Explanation: A now famous picture from the Hubble Space Telescope featured these star forming columns of cold gas and dust light-years long inside M16, the Eagle Nebula, dubbed… Continue reading JWST’s Pillars of Creation – a star hatchery
Update 7-15-2022 • NASA > APOD > “Webb’s Southern Ring Nebula” (July 14, 2022) Explanation: Cataloged as NGC 3132 the Southern Ring Nebula is a planetary nebula, the death shroud of a dying sun-like star some 2,500 light-years from Earth. Composed of gas and dust the stunning cosmic landscape is nearly half a light-year in… Continue reading Beyond Hubble – adventure begins for James Webb Space Telescope
Epic events catch our attention. Spectacular stellar events have attracted attention since ancient times. Some events, however, cannot be observed with our eyes (visible light). Radio sources. And massive spikes in radio energy are telling astronomers something interesting. • NASA > “Hubble Tracks Down Fast Radio Bursts to Galaxies’ Spiral Arms” (May 20,2021) [Includes YouTube… Continue reading FRBs – whence galactic epic flashes of energy?
Who would have expected the Hubble Space Telescope (often referred to as HST or Hubble) to still be in operation after being launched into low Earth orbit in 1990? So, NASA/ESA kickstarted its 30th anniversary with some majestic galactic photos. Wiki: Five Space Shuttle missions have repaired, upgraded, and replaced systems on the telescope, including… Continue reading Celebrating Hubble – 30th anniversary year
As I’ve noted elsewhere (Beyond the infinity of black holes), it wasn’t long ago — maybe a 100 years or so, that our view of the cosmos was much more circumscribed. Those who studied cosmology — physicists, astronomers, et al, viewed our cosmos in a much different way, at a much different scale — basically… Continue reading Beyond the Milky Way — a game-changing discovery