Amazing Photos

[Forrest]

This turbulent cosmic pinnacle lies within a stellar nursery called the Carina Nebula, located 7,500 light-years away
in the southern constellation of Carina. Scorching radiation and fast winds (streams of charged particles) from
super-hot newborn stars in the nebula are shaping and compressing the pillar, causing new stars to form within it.
Streamers of hot ionised gas can be seen flowing off the ridges of the structure, and wispy veils of gas and dust,
illuminated by starlight, float around its towering peaks. The denser parts of the pillar are resisting being eroded
by radiation. Nestled inside this dense mountain are fledgling stars. Long streamers of gas can be seen shooting
in opposite directions from the pedestal at the top of the image. Another pair of jets is visible at another peak
near the centre of the image. These jets, (known as HH 901 and HH 902, respectively), are signposts for new
star birth and are launched by swirling gas and dust discs around the young stars, which allow material to slowly
accrete onto the stellar surfaces.

[Forrest]

The star HD 44179 is surrounded by an extraordinary structure known as the Red Rectangle. It acquired its moniker
because of its shape and its apparent colour when seen in early images from Earth. This strikingly detailed new
Hubble image reveals how, when seen from space, the nebula, rather than being rectangular, is shaped like an
X with additional complex structures of spaced lines of glowing gas, a little like the rungs of a ladder. The star at
the centre is similar to the Sun, but at the end of its lifetime, pumping out gas and other material to make the nebula,
and giving it the distinctive shape. It also appears that the star is a close binary that is surrounded by a dense
torus of dust - both of which may help to explain the very curious shape. The Red Rectangle is an unusual example
of what is known as a proto-planetary nebula. These are old stars, on their way to becoming planetary nebulae.
Once the expulsion of mass is complete a very hot white dwarf star will remain and its brilliant ultraviolet radiation
will cause the surrounding gas to glow. The Red Rectangle is found about 2,300 light-years away in the constellation
Monoceros (the Unicorn)

[Forrest]

The little-known nebula IRAS 05437+2502 billows out among the bright stars and dark dust clouds that surround it
in this striking image from the Hubble Space Telescope. It is located in the constellation of Taurus (the Bull), close
to the central plane of our Milky Way galaxy. Unlike many of Hubble's targets, this object has not been studied in
detail and its exact nature is unclear. At first glance it appears to be a small, rather isolated, region of star formation
and one might assume that the effects of fierce ultraviolet radiation from bright young stars probably were the cause
of the eye-catching shapes of the gas. However, the bright boomerang-shaped feature may tell a more dramatic tale.
The interaction of a high velocity young star and the cloud of gas and dust may have created this unusually sharp-edged
bright arc. Such a reckless star would have been ejected from the distant young cluster where it was born and would
travel at 200,000 km/hour or more through the nebula. This faint cloud was originally discovered in 1983 by the Infrared
Astronomical Satellite (IRAS), the first space telescope to survey the whole sky in the infrared.

[monster_monster]

[Forrest]

[Forrest]

[nick2010]

Forrest, this tread is amazing .... beautiful photos
Always brings me happines to see it
Thanks for all those gorgeous images

Love

Nicky xxx

[Forrest]

Forrest, this tread is amazing .... beautiful photos
Always brings me happines to see it. Thanks for all those gorgeous images

Love

Nicky xxx

Hey Nick, how are you?

Glad you are enjoying the photos.
It's become a hobby of mine and it keeps me from reading too many threads on here too.

Take care. Forrest x

[Forrest]

Courtesy of Monster_Monster.

[Forrest]

and don't sleep walk