Monicks: Unleashed

Category: Photography

  • Herschel Space Observatory Reveals the Hidden Side of Star Birth

    via spacefellowship.com

    This image, in the constellation of Vulpecula, shows an entire assembly line of newborn stars. The diffuse glow reveals the widespread cold reservoir of raw material that our Galaxy has in stock for building stars. Credits: ESA/Hi-GAL Consortium

    The first scientific results from ESA’s Herschel infrared space observatory are revealing previously hidden details of star formation. New images show thousands of distant galaxies furiously building stars and beautiful star-forming clouds draped across the Milky Way. One picture even catches an ‘impossible’ star in the act of formation.

    Posted via web from Monicks: Unleashed

  • Astronomy Picture of the Day – Stellar Nursery in the Rosette Nebula

    via spacefellowship.com

    This image from the European Space Agency’s Herschel Space Observatory shows the cloud associated with the Rosette Nebula, a stellar nursery about 5,000 light-years from Earth in the Monoceros, or Unicorn, constellation. Herschel collects the infrared light given out by dust.

    The bright smudges are dusty cocoons containing massive embryonic stars, which will grow up to 10 times the mass of our sun. The small spots near the center of the image are lower mass stellar embryos. The Rosette Nebula itself, and its massive cluster of stars, is located to the right of the picture.

    This image is a three-color composite showing infrared wavelengths of 70 microns (blue), 160 microns (green), and 250 microns (red). It was made with observations from Herschel’s Photoconductor Array Camera and Spectrometer and the Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver instruments.

    Herschel is an ESA cornerstone mission, with science instruments provided by consortia of European institutes and with participation by NASA.

    Posted via web from Monicks: Unleashed

  • Astronomy Picture of the Day – Hubble finds infant stars in neighbouring galaxy.

    via spacefellowship.com