Astronomy Picture of the Day

these are all great and breathtaking. so many thoughts jump into my mind looking at them all. Stunning

micjer wrote:

Now this one is better than the other day isn't it Gabe?




Explanation: On the upper right, dressed in blue, is the Pleiades. Also known as the Seven Sisters and M45, the Pleiades is one of the brightest and most easily visible open clusters on the sky.

Yes a great picture Mic, full of mysteries and most dynamic.

Planetary Systems Now Forming in Orion

Quote :

How do planets form? To help find out, the Hubble Space Telescope was tasked to take a detailed look at one of the more interesting of all astronomical nebulae, the Great Nebula in Orion. The Orion nebula, visible with the unaided eye near the belt in the constellation of Orion, is an immense nearby starbirth region and probably the most famous of all astronomical nebulas. Insets to the above mosaic show numerous proplyds, many of which are stellar nurseries likely harboring planetary systems in formation. Some proplyds glow as close disks surrounding bright stars light up, while other proplyds contain disks further from their host star, contain cooler dust, and hence appear as dark silhouettes against brighter gas. Studying this dust, in particular, is giving insight for how planets are forming. Many proplyd images also show arcs that are shock waves - fronts where fast moving material encounters slow moving gas. The Orion Nebula lies about 1,500 light years distant and is located in the same spiral arm of our Galaxy as our Sun.

ARE THESE 4TH DENSITY NEGATIVE PLANETS BEING FORMED FOR THE GREAT HARVEST?

That may be whats happening mic. Nice picture.

Fantastic find micjer. I want more.

Where did you find that?

I forget about this thread and where it is listed. I will try to find it in the future and post space pictures on it as opposed to starting a new thread.

I forget about this thread and where it is listed. I will try to find it in the future and post space pictures on it as opposed to starting a new thread.

Thanks mate. Off to the mill site I go

I'm back already.

Wow check this one out. Looks like cupid is reaching into the heart

Great picture reuniteR. Yeah it does look like a heart.

Great picture reuniteR. Yeah it does look like a heart.

I see the female figure reaching in, these shots are always amazing. I like the monthly recap of the new photos they capture.

The 51st entry in Charles Messier's famous catalog is perhaps the original spiral nebula - a large galaxy with a well defined spiral structure also cataloged as NGC 5194. Over 60,000 light-years across, M51's spiral arms and dust lanes clearly sweep in front of its companion galaxy (right), NGC 5195

Nice video mic.

Beautiful

Wonder what was making all those streaks in that video mic?

oh WOW...
Mic you find the neatest stuff
i went to you tube and followed the link back and it says you can see flash lights of climbers..but i don't thingk that's
what we were seeing..but the lights did seem to come from the ground..some flash light..i want one of them

Cotopaxi National Park (Ecuador)
Stéphane Guisard, Los Cielos de América



Located in Ecuador and reaching a height of 5,897 m (19,347 ft), Cotopaxi is one of the highest active volcanoes in the world and the second highest summit in the country. Its name means "Smooth Neck of the Moon", and was honored as a "Sacred Mountain" by local Andean peoples, even prior to the beginning of Inca domination in the 15th century. It was worshiped as "rain sender", that served as the guarantor of the land's fertility and at the same time it's summit was revered as a place where gods live.

Cotopaxi has an almost symmetrical cone that rises from a highland plain of about 3,800 metres (12,500 ft), with a width at its base of about 23 kilometres (14 mi).It has one of the few equatorial glaciers in the world, which starts at the height of 5,000 metres (16,400 ft). The mountain is clearly visible on the skyline from Quito. It is part of the chain of volcanoes around the Pacific plate known as the Pacific Ring of Fire. The first European who tried to climb the mountain was Alexander von Humboldt in 1802, however, he only reached a height of about 4500 m. In 1858 Moritz Wagner investigated the mountain, but he could not reach the summit either. On November 27, 1872, geologist Wilhelm Rajss finally reached the summit of Cotopaxi.

There have been more than 50 eruptions of Cotopaxi since 1738. Numerous valleys formed by lahars (mudflows) surround the volcano. This poses a high risk to the local population, their settlements and fields. Cotopaxi's most violent eruptions in historical times occurred in the years 1744, 1768, and 1877. In the 1877 eruption pyroclastic flows descended all sides of the mountain, with lahars traveling more than 100 km into the Pacific Ocean and western Amazon basin draining the valley. There was a major eruption in 1903 through 1904, and some minor activity in 1942 as well as 1975 but it did not produce any major events. In the most recent case, fumarolic activities and sulfuric emissions increased and ice around the inside and on the southeastern side of the cone started to melt. The main danger of a huge eruption of Cotopaxi would be the flow of ice from its glacier. If there were to be a very large explosion, it would destroy most of the settlements within the valley in the suburban area of Quito (pop. more than 1,000,000).Another city which would be in great danger is Latacunga which is located in the south valley. In 1744 and 1768 an eruption destroyed the colonial town of Latacunga.

(Text above from Wikipedia.)




Cotopaxi volcano time lapse movies made at altitudes of 3800m and 4500m. Cotopaxi Volcano is very close to the Equator line, explaining why in this time lapse movie the celestial Southern Pole is located on the horizon behind the volcano. The coal sack and Southern Cross are visible above the crater. One can also see the flashlights of climbers going up the glaciar.



http://www.astrosurf.com/sguisard/Pagim/Cotopaxi.html

Explanation: What is that strange blue blob on the far right? No one is sure, but it might be a speeding remnant of a powerful supernova that was unexpectedly lopsided. Scattered debris from supernova explosion N49 lights up the sky in this gorgeous composited image based on data from the Chandra and Hubble Space Telescopes. Glowing visible filaments, shown in yellow, and X-ray hot gas, shown in blue, span about 30 light-years in our neighboring galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud. Light from the original exploding star reached Earth thousands of years ago, but N49 also marks the location of another energetic outburst -- an extremely intense blast of gamma-rays detected by satellites about 30 years ago on 1979 March 5. The source of the March 5th Event is now attributed to a magnetar - a highly magnetized, spinning neutron star also born in the ancient stellar explosion which created supernova remnant N49. The magnetar, visible near the top of the image, hurtles through the supernova debris cloud at over 70 thousand kilometers per hour. The blue blob on the far right, however, might have been expelled asymmetrically just as a massive star was exploding. If so, it now appears to be moving over 7 million kilometers per hour.

I saw this one this morning. Awesome picture, I had to copy it to my personal pictures for a nice wallpaper.

OMG
thanks Mic

that is gorgeous..my fav shade of blue
reminds me of lapis lazuti

Amazing picture, looks like a precious stone

Lapis and now you stay out of my head...lol.