Ring Nebula Deep Field

Our Sun may look like all soft and fluffy, but it’s not. Our Sun is an extremely large ball of bubbling hot gas, mostly hydrogen gas. The above picture of our Sun was taken last month in a specific red color of light emitted by hydrogen gas called Hydrogen-alpha and then color inverted to appear blue. In this light, details of the Sun’s chromosphere are particularly visible, highlighting numerous thin tubes of magnetically-confined hot gas known as spicules rising from the Sun like bristles from a shag carpet.

Seven Sisters Versus California

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. The Pleiadescontains over 3,000 stars, is about 400 light years away, and only 13 light years across. Surrounding the stars is a spectacular blue reflection nebula made of fine dust. A common legend is that one of the brighter stars faded since the cluster was named. On the lower left, shining in red, is the California Nebula. Named for its shape, the California Nebula is much dimmer and hence harder to see than the Pleiades. Also known as NGC 1499, this mass of red glowing hydrogen gas is about 1,500 light years away. Although about 25 full moons could fit between them, the above wide angle, deep field image composite has captured them both.

Veiw of Australia from space

Map of the near by Universe.

The clustering pattern of about 100,000 nearby galaxies, revealed by the 6dF Galaxy Survey. Each galaxy is shown as a dot. The galaxy we live in is at the centre of the pattern. Credit: Dr Chris Fluke, Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology.

The Milky Way

The “lifestyles” of 75 neighboring galaxies are illuminated in this poster from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope.

In this composite, blue colors reveal light from an older population of stars. Tints of green represent organic molecules called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, while red lumps show clouds of warm dust and gas heated by radiation from newborn stars. 

The galaxies are organized by shape, according to the Hubble-Tuning Fork. 

In this structure, elliptical galaxies sit on the left side of the poster, creating the tuning fork’s handle. They are designated by the letter “E”, and given a number from zero to seven. An “E0” galaxy looks round, while an E7 galaxy is very long and thin.

Spiral galaxies are located to the right side of the poster creating the fork’s two prongs. The top prong is made up of regular spiral galaxies, and identified by the letter “S.” Barred spiral galaxies make up the bottom prong, and are branded “SB.” Meanwhile, letters – “a”, “b”, and “c” – indicate how tightly the spiral arms are wound. An “Sa” galaxy’s arms are wound very tightly, while an “Sc” galaxy’s spiral arms are very loosely wound.

Irregular galaxies are organized on bottom-left side of the poster because they were not represented in Hubble’s original Tuning Fork.