Obscyra1

The Loch Ness Monster Nebula, LDN 768 // Michael Siniscalchi

Did a planet get destroyed by the white dwarf that’s the source at the center of the Helix Nebula?

Using data from the Chandra X-Ray Observatory to study the nebula, scientists determined the mysteriously strong X-ray signal coming where white dwarf WD 2226-210 sits. Young white dwarfs like WD 2226-210 do not typically give off strong X-rays. This X-ray signal could be the debris from a destroyed planet being pulled onto the white dwarf.

The Helix Nebula—seen in this composite image using data from Chandra, the Hubble Space Telescope, and other observatories—is a planetary nebula, the remnant of a star like our sun that has shed its outer layers, leaving a small dim star at its center called a white dwarf.

Credit: NASA/CXC/JPL/ESA/STScI/ESO.

Perhaps I should take note of the location.

Sweeping spiral arms extend from NGC 4536, littered with bright blue clusters of star formation and red clumps of hydrogen gas shining among dark lanes of dust. NGC 4536 is also a starburst galaxy, in which star formation is happening at a tremendous rate that uses up the gas in the galaxy relatively quickly, by galactic standards. NGC 4536 is approximately 50 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo. It was discovered in 1784 by astronomer William Herschel.

Image credit: NASA, ESA, and J. Lee (Space Telescope Science Institute); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)

I am in need of your assistance @insults-by-sun

There seems to be an issue when I try to take a picture. It ends up completely white.

The Whirlpool Galaxy, M51 // George Chatzifrantzis

Rigel and the Witch Head Nebula

Credits: Mario Cogo, Galax Lux

Star Clouds of Andromeda