Latest Posts by astronomyandgalaxies - Page 2

Such a beautiful universe! So much more waiting to be found

Backyard views

Tuesday February 4th 2025 6:39pm & 6:44pm

Even in space, connections are important. This image of NGC 2566 is part of an observing program dedicated to understanding the connections between stars, gas and dust in nearby star-forming galaxies. Read more:

www.esawebb.org

Close look at a local galaxy

Close look at a local galaxy

Like images of broken light, Webb captured these carbon-rich dust shells around a binary star system. Drifting swiftly outwards, they are seeding their surroundings with carbon - one way elements spread across the universe.

go.nasa.gov/4ahBqmX

Neptune

Neptune is dark, cold, and very windy. It's the last of the planets in our solar system. It's more than 30 times as far from the sun as Earth is. Neptune is very similar to Uranus. It's made of a thick fog of water, ammonia, and methane over an Earth-sized solid center. Its atmosphere is made of hydrogen, helium, and methane. The methane gives Neptune the same blue color as Uranus. Neptune has six rings, but they're very hard to see

this was originally meant to be a physics blog but i find myself posting more about biology related stuff - excuse my inner plant nerd but i like physics too, so:

*cough cough* SPAGHETTIFICATION! a phenomenon where you can become stretched like spaghetti if you enter a black hole.

it’s also known as the tidal effect, and is generally used to describe the vertical stretching or compression of an object into a noodle-like shape in an extremely strong and non homogenous gravitational field.

by non homogenous i just mean that the gravitational field is not the same everywhere, but consists of irregularities. (it is non-uniform)

anyways, a very common example of this is when we’re talking black holes- if i threw you into a black hole, or you happened to fall into one, the gravitational field on one end of your body would be stronger than the other.

this gravitational gradient would mean as you fell, getting closer and closer to the event horizon, your body would become extremely stretched until it would become very very compressed. like spaghetti. but don’t worry, by that time you’d already be dead.

this only happens because of the sheer strength of a black hole’s gravitational field. it’s not really because of its size - but its density. there are lots of objects close or even larger than some black holes, the mass of a black hole is so concentrated in a small area that it absolutely maximises its gravitational pull, which is why not even light can escape it.

this is just one of the relativistic effects of gravity differences, and there are so many cooler ones! for example, pancake detonation.

so stay away from black holes, or you could become stretched like spaghetti or flattened like a pancake.

SH2-240 Spaghetti Nebula

2 panel mosaic

January 27-29, 2025

Zionsville, IN, Bortle 6-7

SVBONY SV550 APO 80 mm'

ZWO AM 5, ASIAIR plus, Guided

Antlia ALP-T Dual Narrowband Filter

ASI2600 MC PRO

Gain 100, -10C, darks, flats, bias

ca. 7 hrs per panel (7 hrs total per night)

LBN 420 ("Galileo's Finger")

Feel small now? Yup, we said the same thing! This is the comparison

A rose made of galaxies 1200 Megapixels

The Crew Pressure Vessel of Enterprise (OV-101) being lowered into the test chamber to a pressure test.

Date: January 21, 1975

NASA ID: MH75-6720

The Milky Way Map

Map of the Milky Way Galaxy with the constellations that cross the galactic plane in each direction and the known most prominent components annotated including main arms, spurs, bar, nucleus/bulge, and notable nebulae.

Rectangular log map scheme of the observable universe

Jellyfish nebula

Aurora behind the starliner

Huge 500,000-mile-wide hole opens in Sun

A vast 500,000-mile-wide coronal hole has opened in the Sun's atmosphere. The area measures over 62 times the diameter of Earth and is now shooting high-speed solar wind toward Earth. When such solar activity is directed at Earth, the resulting geomagnetic storms can potentially disrupt satellite operations, power grids, navigation systems, and radio communications. There may also be spectacular displays of aurora caused as the Earth's magnetosphere is disturbed by the solar wind. According to spaceweather.com, this wind is estimated to hit Earth by Friday (Jan. 31), resulting in G1 geomagnetic storm conditions.

While G1 storms are considered the mildest category, they can still have noticeable effects, particularly in terms of aurora visibility at higher latitudes.

Perseid meteors over Stonehenge

Trapezium: Teardrops in My Skies

Credits: CITA, U. Colorado, WFPC2, HST, NASA

30 years ago today, Eileen Collins became the first woman to pilot the space shuttle, piloting Discovery on its STS-63 mission. She later also became the first woman to command the space shuttle. She reflects on her career in #ASQ: s.si.edu/3SJEOQq

@airandspace via X

s.si.edu

Role Model

Eileen M. Collins, a retired U.S. Air Force colonel, was the first woman to be the pilot on a NASA space shuttle flight. She recently spoke

Tap title bar to read☝️

Barred Spiral Galaxy

NGC 2146 is a barred spiral galaxy located approximately 80 million light-years away in the constellation Camelopardalis.

It is an interesting object of study due to its dusty spiral arm that has looped in front of the galaxy's core as seen from our perspective.

Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA

" Nasa's Deep Space Mission " //© Astro Voyagers

M42: A Mosaic of Orion’s Great Nebula

Credits: Rice U., NASA

Another incredible nebula shot! 1800 Megapixel

Messier 96

Messier 96 (M96) is a spiral galaxy located in the constellation Leo.

It is part of the Leo I Group of galaxies and is approximately 35 million light-years away from Earth.

M96 has a diameter of about 100,000 light-years.

Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA and the LEGUS Team; Acknowledgment: R. Gendler