Astronomy Picture of the Day 2005 October 18

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2005 October 18

AE Aurigae: The Flaming Star
Credit & Copyright: Thomas V. Davis (tvdavisastropix.com)

Explanation: Is star AE Aurigae on fire? No. Even though AE Aurigae is named the flaming star, the surrounding nebula IC 405 is named the Flaming Star Nebula, and the region appears to harbor red smoke, there is no fire. Fire, typically defined as the rapid molecular acquisition of oxygen, happens only when sufficient oxygen is present and is not important in such high-energy, low-oxygen environments such as stars. The material that appears as smoke is mostly interstellar hydrogen, but does contain smoke-like dark filaments of carbon-rich dust grains. The bright star AE Aurigae, visible just below the image center, is so hot it is blue, emitting light so energetic it knocks electrons away from surrounding gas. When a proton recaptures an electron, red light is frequently emitted, as seen in the surrounding emission nebula. Pictured above, the Flaming Star nebula lies about 1,500 light years distant, spans about 5 light years, and is visible with a small telescope toward the constellation of the Charioteer (Auriga).

Tomorrow's picture: dreams of yesterday

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Astronomy Picture of The Day 10-11-05

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2005 October 11

NGC 869 & NGC 884: A Double Open Cluster Credit & Copyright: Thomas V. Davis (tvdavisastropix.com)
Explanation: Most star clusters are singularly impressive. Open clusters NGC 869 and NGC 884, however, are doubly impressive. Also known as "h and chi Persei", this unusual double cluster, shown above, is bright enough to be seen from a dark location without even binoculars. Although their discovery surely predates written history, the Greek astronomer Hipparchus notably cataloged the "double cluster". The clusters are over 7,000 light years distant toward the constellation of Perseus, but are separated by only hundreds of light years.

Tomorrow's picture: tethys flyby

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Astronomy Picture of The Day 10-07-05

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2005 October 7

Eclipse Madrid Credit & Copyright: Peter den Hartog
Explanation: A walk in the park seemed like a perfect idea to many enjoying a sunny October morning in Madrid, Spain. Of course, on October 3rd an added attraction was the Moon - seen in dramatic silhouette during an annular solar eclipse. This multiple exposure sequence follows the progress of the eclipse from Madrid's monument to King Alfonso XII in the pleasant Parque del Buen Retiro. The Sun rises at the left and moves up and to the right in the picture, with the ring-like annular phase near picture center. While a partial eclipse was visible over a wide area including Europe, Africa and western Asia, the central line of the shadow track crossed Madrid. Sun watchers in the capital city basked in an annular eclipse phase lasting about four minutes.

Tomorrow's picture: light-weekend

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Astronomy Picture of The Day 10-06-05

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2005 October 6

Spiral Galaxy NGC 1350 Credit: H. Boffin, H. Heyer, E.Janssen (ESO), FORS2, European Southern Observatory
Explanation: This gorgeous island universe lies about 85 million light-years distant in the southern constellation Fornax. Inhabited by young blue star clusters, the spiral arms of NGC 1350 seem to join in a circle around the galaxy's large, bright nucleus - giving the galaxy the appearance of a limpid cosmic eye. NGC 1350 is about 130,000 light-years across making it as large or slightly larger than our own Milky Way. For earth-based astronomers, NGC 1350 is seen on the outskirts of the Fornax cluster of galaxies, but its estimated distance suggests that it is not itself a cluster member. The sharp image also reveals many background galaxies, some visible right through NGC 1350.
Tomorrow's picture: pixels in space

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Astronomy Picture of The Day 10-05-05

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2005 October 5

Annular Solar Eclipse at High Resolution Credit & Copyright: Stefan Seip
Explanation: On Monday, part of the Sun went missing. The missing piece was no cause for concern -- the Moon was only momentarily in the way. The event was not a total eclipse of the Sun for any Earth-bound sky enthusiast but rather, at best, an annular eclipse, where the Moon blocked most of the Sun. Because of the relatively large distance to the Moon during this Earth-Moon-Sun alignment, the Moon did not have a large enough angular size to block the entire Sun. Those who witnessed the solar eclipse from a narrow path through Spain and Africa, however, were lucky enough to see the coveted Ring of Fire, a dark Moon completely surrounded by the brilliant light of the distant Sun. Pictured above is a Ring of Fire captured two days ago in unusually high resolution above Spain. The resulting image shows details of the granular solar surface as well as many prominences around the Sun.

Tomorrow's picture: cosmic eye

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Astronomy Picture of The Day 10-04-05

This post has been copied from the NASA APOD project page located here: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html This is a test to see about creating an RSS feed for this awesome, inspiring web site.
The Milky Way in Stars and Dust Credit & Copyright: Serge Brunier
Explanation: The disk of our Milky Way Galaxy is home to hot nebulae, cold dust, and billions of stars. This disk can be seen from a dark location on Earth as a band of diffuse light across the sky. This band crosses the sky in dramatic fashion in the above series of wide angle sky exposures from Chile. The deepness of the exposures also brings to light a vast network of complex dust filaments. Dust is so plentiful that it obscures our Galaxy's center in visible light, hiding its true direction until discovered by other means early last century. The Galactic Center, though, is visible above as the thickest part of the disk. The diffuse glow comes from billions of older, fainter stars like our Sun, which are typically much older than the dust or any of the nebulae. One particularly photogenic area of darkness is the Pipe Nebula visible above the Galactic Center. Dark dust is not the dark matter than dominates our Galaxy -- that dark matter remains in a form yet unknown.
Tomorrow's picture: open space