Steve Hooker: Space

APOTD: Announcing Comet Machholz

Mon, 13 Dec 2004 21:12:28 GMT

Explanation: A comet discovered only this summer is brightening quickly and already visible to the unaided eye. Comet C/2004 Q2 (Machholz) is currently best visible in Earth's Southern Hemisphere where some observers report it brighter than magnitude 5. The comet is moving rapidly to northern skies and should continue to brighten until early January. By coincidence, Comet Machholz will be easy to view as it will be nearly opposite the Sun when appearing its brightest. How bright Comet Machholz will become then remains uncertain, but it will surely stay in northern skies for much of 2005, even approaching Polaris in early March. Pictured above, Comet Machholz was captured in early December already sporting a bright surrounding coma, a white oblong dust tail fading off toward the bottom, and a long wispy ion tail toward the right with a kink near the end.

This is going to look good next year.

To the side of a galaxy not so far away

Wed, 07 Jul 2004 20:34:12 GMT

Massive stars, abrasive winds, mountains of dust, and energetic light sculpt one of the largest and most picturesque regions of star formation in the Local Group of Galaxies. Known as N11, the region is visible on the upper right of many images of its home galaxy, the Milky Way neighbor known as the Large Magellanic Clouds (LMC). The above image actually highlights N11B, part of the nebula that spans about 100 light years and is particularly active. The entire emission nebula N11 is second in LMC size only to 30 Doradus. Studying the stars in N11B has shown that it actually houses three successive generations of star formation. Compact globules of dark dust housing emerging young stars are also visible on the upper right.

Bloody big tadpoles

Sun, 04 Jul 2004 13:56:23 GMT

The Ring Nebula about one light year across. But look closer, into the barrel shaped cloud...

At the edge

Cometary knots: So called because of their resemblence to comets, they are actually much larger - their heads are several billion miles across (roughly twice the size of the our solar system itself) while their tails, pointing radially away from the central star, stretch over 100 billion miles.

From the top Not the same nebula, but the square nebula could be what we'd see of the ring nebula, if we looked from the top.

Saturn's rings

Fri, 02 Jul 2004 09:41:23 GMT

Pink Floyd: Brain Damage
And if the cloud bursts, thunder in your ear
You shout and no one seems to hear.
And if the band you're in starts playing different tunes
I'll see you on the dark side of the moon.

"I can't think of anything to say except...
I think it's marvelous! HaHaHa!"

In the Center of NGC 6559

Wed, 30 Jun 2004 11:10:36 GMT

" Explanation: Bright gas and dark dust permeate the space between stars in the center of a nebula known as NGC 6559. The gas, primarily hydrogen, is responsible for the diffuse red glow of the emission nebula. As energetic light from neighboring stars ionizes interstellar hydrogen, protons and electrons recombine to emit light of very specific colors, including the red hue observed. Small dust particles reflect blue starlight efficiently and so creates the blue reflection nebulosity seen near two of the bright stars. Dust also absorbs visible light, causing the dark clouds and filaments visible. NGC 6559 lies about 5000 light-years away toward the constellation of Sagittarius."

Imagine if we lived much closer to this, and we saw this view when we looked up at night (assuming there was no light pollution). I'd be quite sure, that either we'd be completely nuts about gods, or we'd be flying about in space ships by now.

APOD: Mammatus Clouds Over Mexico

Tue, 08 Jun 2004 18:49:45 GMT

"Under some conditions, however, cloud pockets can develop that contain large droplets of water or ice that fall into clear air as they evaporate. Such pockets may occur in turbulent air near a thunderstorm, being seen near the top of an anvil cloud, for example. Resulting mammatus clouds can appear especially dramatic if sunlit from the side. The above mammatus clouds were photographed last month over Monclova, Mexico."

Galaxies, galaxies & galaxies as far as the eye can see

Wed, 07 Apr 2004 21:46:43 GMT

Too many to count. Found a page full of galaxies. Plenty of large 1600+ pixel images for wallpapers. I could spend the rest of my life here, trying to understand it all.
I wish some mad Muslims would do the same, (and some crazy Christians).

In a land far, far away, long, long ago

Thu, 18 Mar 2004 10:29:45 GMT

From APOD What's the farthest galaxy known? The answer keeps changing as astronomers compete to find galaxies that top the list. The new claimed record holder is now the faint smudge indicated in the above images by an 8.2-meter Very Large Telescope (VLT) operating in Chile. Detected light left this galaxy 13.2 billion of years ago, well before the Earth formed, when the universe was younger than 3 percent of its present age. Astronomers have estimated a redshift of 10 for this galaxy, the first double-digit claim for any galaxy. Young galaxies are of much interest to astronomers because many unanswered questions exist on when and how galaxies formed in the early universe.

From Hubble's PR site Astronomers at the Space Telescope Science Institute today [March 9th 2004] unveiled the deepest portrait of the visible universe ever achieved by humankind. Called the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (HUDF), the million-second-long exposure reveals the first galaxies to emerge from the so-called "dark ages," the time shortly after the big bang when the first stars reheated the cold, dark universe. The new image should offer new insights into what types of objects reheated the universe long ago.

From Hubble's PR site Ever wondered what came after the big bang? Me neither, did know 'we' knew. Fascinating!

Gold in them there hills dust lanes

Thu, 26 Feb 2004 16:15:07 GMT

No, I didn't know what the picture was either. Turns out it's a bunch of galaxies back in the early days of the universe. And those purple clouds may contain lots of gold, certainly heavy metals.

Turns out that it's likely that gold comes from the collision of neutron stars. I know we're made of star dust but hadn't realised this about gold.

And did you know that it is estimated that all the gold in the world, so far refined, could be placed in a single cube 60 ft. on a side. I remember telling my geology teacher something like that, for him to laugh at... Next time I see Mr Curly...

The Many Faces of Mount Everest

Sat, 24 Jan 2004 13:35:01 GMT

"Not an easy peak to locate while zipping over the mountains at 7 kilometers per second" [Via kuro5hin]

Once upon a time: India 'floated' up to Asia, and bashed the Himalayas up, and up, and up.