Todays pic is a look at stars young and old, although at first seeming to lack in detail it is when you read the accompanying text that the picture can be looked at for a second time and you begin to appreciate what can actually be seen.
Hubble Snapshot Captures Life Cycle of Stars
In this stunning picture of the giant galactic nebula NGC 3603, the Hubble telescope's crisp resolution captures various stages of the life cycle of stars in one single view.
This picture nicely illustrates the entire stellar life cycle of stars, starting with the Bok globules and giant gaseous pillars (evidence of embryonic stars), followed by circumstellar disks around young stars, and progressing to ageing, massive stars in a young starburst cluster. The blue super-giant with its ring and bipolar outflow [upper left of center] marks the end of the life cycle.
Credit: Wolfgang Brandner (JPL/IPAC), Eva K. Grebel (Univ. Washington), You-Hua Chu (Univ. Illinois Urbana-Champaign), and NASA
A full text article and larger versions of this piccy can be found here, the images range from just 115K up to 6.39Meg; the images are linked to on this page so there are no probs for 56K users who want some of the mid range sizes.
Previous Pic Of The Day posts
26th Apr 03
24th Apr 03
22nd Apr 03
19th Apr 03
18th Apr 03
16th Apr 03
14th Apr 03
Many apologies that it has been a few days since the last of these posts but I've been a bit busy with RL.
Hubble Snapshot Captures Life Cycle of Stars
In this stunning picture of the giant galactic nebula NGC 3603, the Hubble telescope's crisp resolution captures various stages of the life cycle of stars in one single view.
This picture nicely illustrates the entire stellar life cycle of stars, starting with the Bok globules and giant gaseous pillars (evidence of embryonic stars), followed by circumstellar disks around young stars, and progressing to ageing, massive stars in a young starburst cluster. The blue super-giant with its ring and bipolar outflow [upper left of center] marks the end of the life cycle.
Credit: Wolfgang Brandner (JPL/IPAC), Eva K. Grebel (Univ. Washington), You-Hua Chu (Univ. Illinois Urbana-Champaign), and NASA
A full text article and larger versions of this piccy can be found here, the images range from just 115K up to 6.39Meg; the images are linked to on this page so there are no probs for 56K users who want some of the mid range sizes.
Previous Pic Of The Day posts
26th Apr 03
24th Apr 03
22nd Apr 03
19th Apr 03
18th Apr 03
16th Apr 03
14th Apr 03
Many apologies that it has been a few days since the last of these posts but I've been a bit busy with RL.
