Windswept By Charles Sowers

N44C nebula

On the middle left of the image is a source of its artistic likeness, a network of nebulous filaments surrounding the Wolf-Rayet star. This type of rare star is characterized by an exceptionally vigorous “wind” of charged particles. The shock of the wind colliding with the surrounding gas causes the gas to glow.

The Wolf-Rayet star is part of N44C, a nebula of glowing hydrogen gas surrounding young stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Visible from the Southern Hemisphere, the Large Magellanic Cloud is a small companion galaxy to the Milky Way.

What makes N44C peculiar is the temperature of the star that illuminates it. The most massive stars — those that are 10 to 50 times more massive than the Sun — have maximum temperatures of 30,000 to 50,000 degrees Celsius (54,000 to 90,000 degrees Fahrenheit). The temperature of this star is about 75,000 degrees Celsius (135,000 degrees Fahrenheit). This unusually high temperature may be due to a neutron star or black hole that occasionally produces X-rays but is now inactive.

N44C is part of a larger complex that includes young, hot, massive stars, nebulae, and a “superbubble” blown out by multiple supernova explosions. Part of the superbubble is seen in red at the very bottom left of the Hubble image.

Credit: NASA/JPL/Hubble

NASA logo. April 27, 2015 As the saying goes, timing is everything. More so in 21st-century space exploration where navigating spacecraft precisely to far-flung destinations—say to Mars or even more distant Europa, a moon of Jupiter—is critical. NASA is making great strides...

Comments of the Week #92: from the Universe’s birth to ten decades of science

“[I]f there were antimatter galaxies out there, then there should be some interface between the matter and antimatter ones. Either there would be a discontinuity (like a domain wall) separating the two regions, there would be an interface where gamma rays of a specific frequency originated, or there would be a great 2D void where it’s all already annihilated away.

And our Universe contains none of these things. The absence of them in all directions and in all locations tells us that if there are antimatter galaxies out there, they’re far beyond the observable part of our Universe. Instead, every interacting pair we see shows evidence that they’re all made of matter. Beautiful, beautiful matter.”

There’s no better way to start 2016 than… with a bang! Come check out our first comments of the week of the new year.

Jupiter’s Galilean Moons

Io - Jupiter’s volcanic moon

Europa -  Jupiter’s icy moon

Ganymede - Jupiter’s (and the solar system’s) largest moon

Callisto -  Jupiter’s heavily cratered moon

Made using: Celestia, Screen2Gif & GIMP Based on: @spaceplasma‘s solar system gifs Profile sources: http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets, http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/joviansatfact.html

The latest from Brock Davis - love his work! 

Look Up! Perseid Meteor Shower Peaks Aug. 11-12

Asteroid Watch logo. Aug. 2, 2016 Make plans now to stay up late or set the alarm early next week to see a cosmic display of “shooting stars” light up the night sky. Known for it’s fast and bright meteors, the annual Perseid meteor shower is anticipated to be one of the best potential meteor viewing opportunities this year. The Perseids show up every year in August when Earth ventures through trails of debris left behind by an ancient comet. This year, Earth may be in for a closer encounter than usual with the comet trails that result in meteor shower, setting the stage for a spectacular display.

Image above: An outburst of Perseid meteors lights up the sky in August 2009 in this time-lapse image. Stargazers expect a similar outburst during next week’s Perseid meteor shower, which will be visible overnight on Aug. 11 and 12. Image Credits: NASA/JPL. “Forecasters are predicting a Perseid outburst this year with double normal rates on the night of Aug. 11-12,” said Bill Cooke with NASA’s Meteoroid Environments Office in Huntsville, Alabama. “Under perfect conditions, rates could soar to 200 meteors per hour.” An outburst is a meteor shower with more meteors than usual. The last Perseid outburst occurred in 2009. Every Perseid meteor is a tiny piece of the comet Swift-Tuttle, which orbits the sun every 133 years. Each swing through the inner solar system can leave trillions of small particles in its wake. When Earth crosses paths with Swift-Tuttle’s debris, specks of comet-stuff hit Earth’s atmosphere and disintegrate in flashes of light. These meteors are called Perseids because they seem to fly out of the constellation Perseus. Most years, Earth might graze the edge of Swift-Tuttle’s debris stream, where there’s less activity. Occasionally, though, Jupiter’s gravity tugs the huge network of dust trails closer, and Earth plows through closer to the middle, where there’s more material. This may be one of those years. Experts at NASA and elsewhere agree that three or more streams are on a collision course with Earth. “Here’s something to think about. The meteors you’ll see this year are from comet flybys that occurred hundreds if not thousands of years ago,” said Cooke. “And they’ve traveled billions of miles before their kamikaze run into Earth’s atmosphere.” How to Watch the Perseids The best way to see the Perseids is to go outside between midnight and dawn on the morning of Aug. 12. Allow about 45 minutes for your eyes to adjust to the dark. Lie on your back and look straight up. Increased activity may also be seen on Aug. 12-13. For stargazers experiencing cloudy or light-polluted skies, a live broadcast of the Perseid meteor shower will be available via Ustream overnight on Aug. 11-12 and Aug. 13-14, beginning at 10 p.m. EDT.: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nasa-msfc

Meteor Moment: Viewing Tips.

More about the Perseids Perseid meteors travel at the blistering speed of 132,000 miles per hour (59 kilometers per second). That’s 500 times faster than the fastest car in the world. At that speed, even a smidgen of dust makes a vivid streak of light when it collides with Earth’s atmosphere. Peak temperatures can reach anywhere from 3,000 to 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit as they speed across the sky. The Perseids pose no danger to Earth. Most burn up 50 miles above our planet. But an outburst could mean trouble for spacecraft. About the Meteoroid Environment Office It’s Cooke’s job to help NASA understand and prepare for risks posed by meteoroids. He leads a team of meteor experts in the Meteoroid Environments Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. They study meteoroids in space so that NASA can protect our nation’s satellites, spacecraft and even astronauts aboard the International Space Station from these bits of tiny space debris. Related links: Meteors & Meteorites: http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/watchtheskies/index.html Meteoroid Environments Office: https://www.nasa.gov/offices/meo/home/index.html Image (mentioned), Video, Text, Credits: NASA/Jennifer Harbaugh. Greetings, Orbiter.ch Full article

“evolution is written on the wings of butterflies” - charles darwin

photos by linden gledhill of butterfly and moth wings, which are actually made up of thousands of tiny scales, at seven to ten times magnification (save the last). 

Portraits of birds by Laila Jeffreys

We’re used to radiation being invisible. With a Geiger counter, it gets turned into audible clicks. What you see above, though, is radiation’s effects made visible in a cloud chamber. In the center hangs a chunk of radioactive uranium, spitting out alpha and beta particles. The chamber also has a reservoir of alcohol and a floor cooled to -40 degrees Celsius. This generates a supersaturated cloud of alcohol vapor. When the uranium spits out a particle, it zips through the vapor, colliding with atoms and ionizing them. Those now-charged ions serve as nuclei for the vapor, which condenses into droplets that reveal the path of the particle. The characteristics of the trails are distinct to the type of decay particle that created them. In fact, both the positron and muon were first discovered in cloud chambers! (Image credit: Cloudylabs, source)

W. M. Keck Observatory telescopes logo. December 2, 2014

Image above: A dusty planetary system (left) is compared to another system with little dust in this artist’s conception. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech. Planet hunters received some good news recently. A...