10pm – 1am
NGC 7635
Cassiopeia's famed “Bubble Nebula” is an emission nebula appearing not far from the open cluster M52. The conspicuous bubble feature results from “stellar wind,” a stream of charged gas, emanating from a nearby massive star. The gas from the star repels the nebula's own gas and dust creating the spherical structure, which uncannily resembles a soap bubble riding on the wispy froth of the rest of the gas cloud.
M74
This is a spiral galaxy, seen face-on, about 35 million light years away in the constellation Picses.
M33
This image comprised 80 21.2-second images.
M1
Better known to most amateur astronomers as the “Crab Nebula,” M1 is remains of a star that went supernova (exploded) in 1054 AD. The supernova was observed on Earth by Chinese astronomers/astrologers who had no idea what they were actually seeing. The expanding cloud of gas, dust and other debris – now about ten light years across - was given its name by Lord Rosse, who sketched it in detail in 1844, noting an intricate filamentary structure.
In 1968, astronomers identified a pulsating radio source emanating from M1. This turned out to be one of the first examples of a pulsar, a rapidly rotating neutron star. Neutron stars are composed of “degenerate matter” so densely packed that a spoonful would weigh 10,000 pounds. They result from the rapid collapse of matter under extreme gravitational forces during a supernova. A neutron star may only tens miles in diameter, but spins rapidly – 30 times per second, in the case of the Crab Nebula pulsar.
This image comprises 30, 21.2 second images.
No comments:
Post a Comment