star formation
Big or Small, All Stars Form the Same Way
IRAS 13481-6124 (upper left is about twenty times the mass of our sun and five times its radius. It is surrounded by its pre-natal cocoon. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ESO/Univ. of Michigan
Big bruiser stars form like their wimpy little siblings
Astronomers using the UK’s Infrared Telescope (UKIRT) have made an important discovery: massive stars form much like lower mass stars do.
That doesn’t seem surprising, does it? Ah, but it is. It turns out that massive stars are different than the hoi polloi like the Sun, and it’s a bit puzzling that they can form at all!
Astronomy Without A Telescope – Stellar Archaeology
Artist's impression of Population 3 stars born over 13 billion years ago - the earliest, oldest and presumably now long extinct star types. Credit: NASA.
A vast, cosmic cloudy brain looms in a nearby galaxy
Deep inside the Milky Way’s companion galaxy called the Large Magellanic Cloud lies a vast complex of stars, gas, and dust. From our vantage point, 170,000 light years away, we see it as a softly-glowing pinkish brain-shaped cloud studded with stars — a description that grossly underdescribes the tremendous beauty of the newly-released Hubble view of it:
Oh, my. Click it to get a bigger version, or go here to get a 26 Mb 4000×4000 pixel version.
Gravity’s galactic brushstrokes
Great beauty in art, it is sometimes thought, comes at the price of great strife. Massive forces, both internal and external, shape the flow of artistry. This metaphor applies equally well to galaxies as it does to humans.
Of course, when the Universe is your canvas, the scale’s a little bigger. Like with this dramatic Hubble view of the spiral galaxy M66:
[Oh yes, you most assuredly want to to click that to see the galactic 3906 x 2702 pixel version.]
Hubble celebrates 20 years in space with a jaw-dropper
I was out of town at a wedding this weekend, so I missed blogging about the spectacular image release for the Hubble Space Telescope’s 20th anniversary (here’s the US site). And yikes, it’s simply mind-smackingly mind smacking. Behold:
Ye gods. Click to get access to massively embiggened versions.
Stunning Science Using Nature's Telescope
Starbirth in SMM J2135-0102 (Credit: Swinbank et al/Nature, ESO, APEX; NASA, ESA, SMA)
Einstein started it all, back in 1915.
Eddington picked up the ball and ran with it, in 1919.
And in the last decade or so astronomers have used a MACHO to OLGE CASTLES … yes, I'm talking about gravitational lensing.
Massive Repeated Explosions Halted Star Formation in Early Universe
An artist's representation showing outflow from a supermassive black hole inside the middle of a galaxy. Credit: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss
Youngsters Caught Gorging – on Gas
Twin Tails Tell a Crazy Tale of Star Formation
Twin tails of gas are forming stars outside a galaxy. Credit: Chandra X-Ray Observatory
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