Enid Astronomical Society

04/08/2021

04/06/2021

Today Chandra is studying stars in Sagittarius. Nearby in the sky is star-forming region NGC 6559. When an area inside this nebula gathers enough matter, it will start to collapse under its own gravity and get denser and hotter until thermonuclear fusion begins and a star is born.🌟

04/03/2021

03/31/2021

NGC 5128, or Centaurus A, is an active galaxy located 12 million light-years away. Its most striking features include a dust lane going across the middle and a giant jet coming from the supermassive black hole at its galactic center. 💫 https://go.nasa.gov/3wfW02H

03/31/2021

Hoag’s Object is a striking galaxy. Located about 600 million light-years away, this ring-type galaxy is slightly larger than our Milky Way with a blue ring containing clusters of young, massive stars. The yellow center contains mostly older stars. https://hubblesite.org/contents/media/images/2002/21/1241-Image.html

03/24/2021

APOD: Aurorae and Lightning on Jupiter (2021 Mar 24)
Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, SwRI;
Text: Natalia Lewandowska
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210324.html

Explanation: Why does so much of Jupiter's lightning occur near its poles? Similar to Earth, Jupiter experiences both aurorae and lightning. Different from Earth, though, Jupiter's lightning usually occurs near its poles -- while much of Earth's lightning occurs near its equator. To help understand the difference, NASA's Juno spacecraft, currently orbiting Jupiter, has observed numerous aurora and lightning events. The featured image, taken by Juno's Stellar Reference Unit camera on 2018 May 24, shows Jupiter's northern auroral oval and several bright dots and streaks. An eye-catching event is shown in the right inset image -- which is a flash of Jupiter's lightning -- one of the closest images of aurora and lightning ever. On Earth (which is much nearer to the Sun than Jupiter), sunlight is bright enough to create, by itself, much stronger atmospheric heating at the equator than the poles, driving turbulence, storms, and lightning. On Jupiter, in contrast, atmospheric heating comes mostly from its interior (as a remnant from its formation), leading to the hypothesis that more intense equatorial sunlight reduces temperature differences between upper atmospheric levels, hence reducing equatorial lightning-creating storms.

https://www.nasa.gov/
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/
https://www.swri.org/
https://www.haverford.edu/users/nlewandows

Starship Asterisk* • APOD Discussion Page
http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=210324

03/22/2021

What does water mean to us?
Water is a crucial element for life as we know it. 💧 In the , scientists are seeking out worlds outside our solar system whose surface conditions are “just right'' for liquid water to exist.

We’ve found water out in the universe. Our Swift observatory found that interstellar comet 2I/Borisov lost enough water to fill over 92 Olympic-size swimming pools (nearly 61 million gallons) on its trip through our solar system! https://go.nasa.gov/3vOIcMr

Water can amplify microwave light, similar to how lasers amplify visible light. Scientists use these “water masers” to study sites of star birth near the central black holes in certain galaxies. Learn more: https://go.nasa.gov/3tPgkWN

03/22/2021

APOD: From Auriga to Orion (2021 Mar 22)
Image Credit & Copyright: Alistair Symon
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210322.html
Repost with annotated image

Explanation: What's up in the sky from Auriga to Orion? Many of the famous stars and nebulas in this region were captured on 34 separate images, taking over 430 hours of exposure, and digitally combined to reveal the featured image. Starting on the far upper left, toward the constellation of Auriga (the Chariot driver), is the picturesque Flaming Star Nebula (IC 405). Continuing down along the bright arc of our Milky Way Galaxy, from left to right crossing the constellations of the Twins and the Bull, notable appearing nebulas include the Tadpole, Simeis 147, Monkey Head, Jellyfish, Cone and Rosette nebulas. In the upper right quadrant of the image, toward the constellation of Orion (the hunter), you can see Sh2-264, the half-circle of Barnard's Loop, and the Horsehead and Orion nebulas. Famous stars in and around Orion include, from left to right, orange Betelgeuse (just right of the image center), blue Bellatrix (just above it), the Orion belt stars of Mintaka, Alnilam, and Alnitak, while bright Rigel appears on the far upper right. This stretch of sky won't be remaining up in the night very long -- it will be setting continually earlier in the evening as mid-year approaches.

Unannotated:
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2103/AroundOrion_Symon_2000.jpg

https://www.facebook.com/ColorsOfCosmos

Starship Asterisk* • APOD Discussion Page
http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=210322

03/19/2021

Located about 5,000 light-years away, Abell 78 is an unusual type of nebula.

This image shows the remnants of a dying star “re-energized.” Although the core of the star has stopped burning hydrogen and helium, a thermonuclear runaway at its surface ejects material at high speeds.

This ejecta shocks and sweeps up the material of the old nebula, producing the filaments and irregular shell around the central star seen in this image.

Find out more: https://go.nasa.gov/3ty5015

Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, M. Guerrero; Acknowledgment: Judy Schmidt

03/18/2021

APOD: Stardust in the Perseus Molecular Cloud (2021 Mar 18)
Image Credit & Copyright: Kerry-Ann Lecky Hepburn, Stuart Heggie
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210318.html

Explanation: Clouds of stardust drift through this deep skyscape, across the Perseus molecular cloud some 850 light-years away. Dusty nebulae reflecting light from embedded young stars stand out in the nearly 2 degree wide telescopic field of view. With a characteristic bluish color reflection nebula NGC 1333 is at center, vdB 13 at top right, with rare yellowish reflection nebula vdB 12 near the top of the frame. Stars are forming in the molecular cloud, though most are obscured at visible wavelengths by the pervasive dust. Still, hints of contrasting red emission from Herbig-Haro objects, the jets and shocked glowing gas emanating from recently formed stars, are evident in NGC 1333. The chaotic environment may be similar to one in which our own Sun formed over 4.5 billion years ago. At the estimated distance of the Perseus molecular cloud, this cosmic scene would span about 40 light-years.

http://www.weatherandsky.com
http://www.stuartheggie.com

Starship Asterisk* • APOD Discussion Page
http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=210318

03/18/2021

This messy mashup is a pair of merging galaxies known as Centaurus A. Although it’s been studied in many types of light since the 1800s, we’ve never determined what’s happening in its core — the heart of the collision. The powerful James Webb Space Telescope is here to change that! By observing infrared light, it will be able to peer into its dusty center and deliver high-resolution data that allows researchers to model what’s present, including jets sent out by its active supermassive black hole: https://go.nasa.gov/38Mfv8P

More about the image: Centaurus A sports a warped central disk of gas and dust, which is evidence of a past collision and merger with another galaxy. It also has an active galactic nucleus that periodically emits jets. It is the fifth brightest galaxy in the sky and only about 13 million light-years away from Earth, making it an ideal target to study an active galactic nucleus — a supermassive black hole emitting jets and winds — with NASA's upcoming James Webb Space Telescope.

Credits: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; optical: Rolf Olsen; infrared: NASA/JPL-Caltech; radio: NRAO/AUI/NSF/Univ.Hertfordshire/M.Hardcastle

03/16/2021

APOD: IC 1318: The Butterfly Nebula in Gas and Dust (2021 Mar 16)
Image Credit & Copyright: Alan Pham
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210316.html

Explanation: In the constellation of the swan near the nebula of the pelican lies the gas cloud of the butterfly next to a star known as the hen. That star, given the proper name Sadr, is just to the right of the featured frame, but the central Butterfly Nebula, designated IC 1318, is shown in high resolution. The intricate patterns in the bright gas and dark dust are caused by complex interactions between interstellar winds, radiation pressures, magnetic fields, and gravity. The featured telescopic view captures IC 1318's characteristic emission from ionized sulfur, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms mapped to the red, green, and blue hues of the popular Hubble Palette. The portion of the Butterfly Nebula pictured spans about 100 light years and lies about 4000 light years away.

https://www.instagram.com/planetorion/

Starship Asterisk* • APOD Discussion Page
http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=210316