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This vivid picture of an active star forming region—NGC 2467, otherwise known as the Skull and Crossbones Nebula—is as sinister as it is beautiful. This image of dust, gas and bright young stars, gravitationally bound into the form of a grinning skull, was captured with the FORS instrument on the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT). Whilst ESO’s telescopes are usually used for the collection of science data, their immense resolving power makes them ideal for capturing images such as this—which are beautiful for their own sake.
Area surrounding the stellar cluster NGC 2467, also known as the Skull & Crossbones Nebula. It is located in the southern constellation of Puppis ("The Stern"). With an age of a few million years at most, it is a very active stellar nursery, where new stars are born continuously from large clouds of dust and gas. The image, looking like a colorful cosmic ghost or a gigantic celestial "skull", contains the open clusters Haffner 18 (center) and Haffner 19 (middle right: it is located inside the smaller pink region—the lower eye of the "skull"), as well as vast areas of ionized gas. The bright star at the center of the largest pink region on the bottom of the image is HD 64315, a massive young star that is helping shaping the structure of the whole nebular region.
A colorful star-forming region is featured in this stunning new NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of NGC 2467. Looking like a roiling cauldron of some exotic cosmic brew, huge clouds of gas and dust are sprinkled with bright blue, hot young stars.
Strangely shaped dust clouds, resembling spilled liquids, are silhouetted against a colorful background of glowing. Like the familiar Orion Nebula, NGC 2467 is a huge cloud of gas—mostly hydrogen—that serves as an incubator for new stars.
This picture was created from images taken with the Wide Field Channel of the Advanced Camera for Surveys through three different filters (F550M, F660N and F658N, shown in blue, green and red). These filters were selected to let through different colors of red and yellow light arising from different elements in the gas. The total aggregate exposure time was about 2,000 seconds and the field of view is about 3.5 arcminutes across. These data were taken in 2004.
Credit: NASA, European Space Agency and Orsola De Marco (Macquarie University)
The star cluster Pismis 24 lies in the core of the large emission nebula NGC 6357 that extends one degree on the sky in the direction of the Scorpius constellation. Part of the nebula is ionized by the youngest (bluest) heavy stars in Pismis 24. The intense ultraviolet radiation from the blazing stars heats the gas surrounding the cluster and creates a bubble in NGC 6357. The presence of these surrounding gas clouds makes probing into the region even harder.
One of the top candidates for the title of "Milky Way stellar heavyweight champion" was, until now, Pismis 24-1, a bright young star that lies in the core of the small open star cluster Pismis 24 (the bright stars in the Hubble image) about 8,000 light-years away from Earth. Pismis 24-1 was thought to have an incredibly large mass of 200 to 300 solar masses. New NASA/ESA Hubble measurements of the star, have, however, resolved Pismis 24-1 into two separate stars, and, in doing so, have "halved" its mass to around 100 solar masses.
Credit: NASA, European Space Agency and Jesús Maíz Apellániz (Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía, Spain)
This image showcases the emission nebula NGC 2313. The bright star V565—surrounded by four prominent diffraction spikes—illuminates a silvery, fan-shaped veil of gas and dust, while the right half of this image is obscured by a dense cloud of dust. Nebulae with similar shapes—a star accompanied by a bright fan of gas—were once referred to as cometary nebulae, though the name is no longer used.
The language that astronomers use changes as we become better acquainted with the Universe, and astronomical history is littered with now-obsolete phrases to describe objects in the night sky, such as “spiral nebulae” for spiral galaxies or “inferior planets” for Mercury and Venus.
The NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope caught the Boomerang Nebula in images taken with the Advanced Camera for Surveys in early 2005. This reflecting cloud of dust and gas has two nearly symmetric lobes of matter that are being ejected from a central star. Each lobe of the nebula is nearly one light-year in length, making the total length of the nebula half as long as the distance from our Sun to our nearest neighbors—the alpha Centauri stellar system, located roughly 4 light-years away. The Boomerang Nebula resides 5,000 light-years from Earth. Hubble's sharp view is able to resolve patterns and ripples in the nebula very close to the central star that are not visible from the ground.
Credit: NASA, European Space Agency and The Hubble Heritage Team of the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI)/Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA)
Star Gamma Cassiopeiae & The Ghost Nebula (ground-based wide view)
This image shows the sky around the nebula IC 63, nicknamed the Ghost Nebula. It was created from images forming part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2. The field of view is dominated by the bright star Gamma Cassiopeiae, which is having a profound influence on IC 63. IC 63 is only one of several nebulous structures surrounding Gamma Cassiopeiae—all of which are affected by the radiation emitted by the blue-white subgiant star. Gamma Cassiopeiae is a variable star, and a multiple star system.
Based upon parallax measurements made by Europe's Hipparcos scientific satellite, Gamma Cassiopeiae is located at a distance of roughly 550 light-years from Earth. Together with its common-proper-motion companion, HD 5408, the system could contain a total of eight stars. Gamma Cassiopeiae has a mass 17 times that of the Sun. The star’s estimated age is only 8 million years.
Credit: European Space Agency/Hubble, NASA, Digitized Sky Survey 2
Powerful gushers of energy from seething stars can sculpt eerie-looking figures with long flowing veils of gas and dust. One striking example is "the Ghost of Cassiopeia," officially known as IC 63, located 550 light-years away in the constellation Cassiopeia the Queen.
The nebula's ethereal glow might remind people of apparitions such as those reported by paranormal investigators. In reality, when viewed in near-infrared wavelengths, streamers of dust are reflecting light from the nearby, blue-giant star Gamma Cassiopeiae (not seen here). In this near-infrared view background stars and galaxies can be seen through the semitransparent dust clouds. A blue color was assigned to shorter infrared wavelengths in one exposure. A red color was assigned to longer infrared wavelengths in a second exposure, and the images were then combined. Hubble photographed IC 63 in August 2016.
The constellation Cassiopeia is visible every clear night from mid-northern and higher latitudes. Its distinctive "W" asterism, which forms the queen's throne, is best seen high in the sky on autumn and winter evenings. Gamma Cassiopeiae, the middle star in the W, is visible to the unaided eye, but a large telescope is needed to see IC 63.
Credit: NASA, European Space Agency, and Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI)
Acknowledgment: H. Arab (University of Strasbourg)
This video zooms in on the emission and reflection nebula IC 63—nicknamed the Ghost Nebula—about 550 light-years away. It starts with a view of the night sky as seen from the ground. It then zooms through observations from the Digitized Sky Survey 2, and ends with a view of the nebula obtained with the NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope.
Credit: Hubble, Digitized Sky Survey 2, N. Risinger
IC 63—nicknamed the Ghost Nebula—is about 550 light-years from Earth. The nebula is classified as both a reflection nebula—as it is reflecting the light of a nearby star—and as an emission nebula—as it releases hydrogen-alpha radiation. Both effects are caused by the gigantic star Gamma Cassiopeiae. The radiation of this star is also slowly causing the nebula to dissipate.
NASA’s SpaceX Crew-5 training reel with NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, as well as Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Koichi Wakata, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina. The Crew-5 crew is training for their long-duration mission to the International Space Station.
NASA Astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada are going to the International Space Station no earlier than Sept. 29, 2022 alongside their crewmates, Koichi Wakata of JAXA, and Anna Kikina of Roscosmos.
Anna Yuryevna Kikina (Russian: Анна Юрьевна Кикина, born August 27, 1984, in Novosibirsk) is a Russian engineer and test cosmonaut, selected in 2012. She is the only woman cosmonaut currently in active service at Roscosmos. [Wikipedia]
An international partnership of space agencies provides and operates the elements of the International Space Station (ISS). The principals are the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada. The ISS has been the most politically complex space exploration program ever undertaken.
Hubblecast 86: This Hubblecast explores the wings of Twin Jet Nebula which were observed and studied by the NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope. The elongated form of this planetary nebula is caused by two stars in its center, orbiting each other.
Distance:4,000 light years in the constellation Ophiuchus
Credit: European Space Agency (ESA)
Directed by: Mathias Jäger
Visual design and editing: Martin Kornmesser
Written by: Mathias Jäger, Nicky Jenner, Georgia Bladon
Narration: Sara Mendes da Costa
Images: NASA, ESA/Hubble
Videos: NASA, ESA/Hubble, NASA Goodard Space Flight Center
Animations: Martin Kornmesser, Luis Calcada, NASA, ESA/Hubble
Music: Stan Dart (www.stan-dart.com)
Web and technical support: Mathias Andre and Raquel Yumi Shida
This video pans over NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope observations of the Twin Jet Nebula. The elongated form of this planetary nebula is caused by two stars in its center, orbiting each other.
Distance:4,000 light years in the constellation Ophiuchus
This video begins with a ground-based view of the night sky, before zooming in on the Twin Jet Nebula, a bipolar planetary nebula, as the NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope sees it.
The Twin Jet Nebula, or PN M2-9, is a striking example of a bipolar planetary nebula. Bipolar planetary nebulae are formed when the central object is not a single star, but a binary system, Studies have shown that the nebula’s size increases with time, and measurements of this rate of increase suggest that the stellar outburst that formed the lobes occurred just 1200 years ago.
Distance:4,000 light years in the constellation Ophiuchus
