Not to be confused with Canadian Gum Hubba-Bubba, Hubble has released a great birthday image for it’s 26th birthday. I’m a few days late to celebrate, but it’s still a beautiful image. Known as NGC 7653, the Bubble nebula is 8,000 light years distant in the constellation of Cassiopeia. The reason for this natural bubble shape is that the star just left of center in the image is ionizing a surrounding cloud of Hydrogen with it’s powerful stellar wind. As electrons and protons recombine at the edges of the bubble, they release an infrared photon that can be clearly seen...
First of all, in case you didn’t know, according to a few sources, today is not just Valentine’s day, but also: Impotence Day, Condom day, Singles Awareness Day, Ferris Wheel Day, Congenital Heart Disease Day, and Pet Theft Awareness Day. And on to the Astronomy! A classic favourite would be the Heart Nebula. Located 7,500 light years away in the constellation Cassiopeia, this heart-shaped HII emission nebula is located along the plane of the Milky Way galaxy. HII regions like this one are used to probe the massive star formation in a galaxy. This is because massive O and B...
Cassiopeia A is the expanding remainder of a massive star that exploded 340 years ago in he constellation of Cassiopeia (hence we call it Cas A for short). As the star erupted, hot radioactive material was shot out in all directions, churning up the surrounding outer debris, before the star finally tore itself apart. Simulations of supernova explosions have found it difficult to model the extreme conditions during this process, even when using the world’s best supercomputers. So what are astronomers missing? By studying recent supernovae like Cas A, astronomers can study the processes that formed these massive expanding shock waves, leading...
