Category Archives: eso

The Seagull Hatches a New Star

Star Formation is Gorgeous!

This new image from ESO’s La Silla Observatory shows part of a stellar nursery nicknamed the Seagull Nebula. This cloud of gas, formally called Sharpless 2-292, looks like the head of the seagull. Its bright glowing red color is due to strong radiation from a very hot young star lurking at its heart. The detailed view was produced by the Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope. Courtesy ESO.

When you look at a star, it’s hard to wrap your head around the idea that it came from a cold cloud of gas molecules and dust. Yet, that describes the nebulae where stars are born pretty well. Take the Seagull Nebula. It lies about 3,700 light-years away from us near the constellation Canis Major (the Big Dog) in the sky, and kind of looks like a sea gull with a bright spot or two in it. Those bright spots are newborn stars.  The image you see here was taken with the MPG/European Southern Observatory 2.2-meter telescope, using its Wide Field Imager.

This wide-field view captures the entire Seagull Nebula, formally called IC 2177. This view was created from images forming part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2. Courtesy: ESO/Digitized Sky Survey 2. Acknowledgement: Davide De Martin. (Click to enlarge.)

So, one part of this complex of gas and dust clouds makes up the head of the cosmic sea gull. It’s glowing brightly (in red, near the bottom of the image) . What causes it fluoresce like that?  See the star in the center of the image? That’s a hot young star that formed in the nebula and its strong radiation is heating the gases and causing them to glow.

There are other hot young blue-white stars that hatched here in this stellar nursery, and their light bounces off of dust particles and shows up as a blue haze.

One of the reasons that I’m so taken with images of star birth regions is that they are always so beautiful. That beauty belies the fact that stellar nurseries are places of great destruction. The birth of a star eats up the cloud material. It carves out caverns and spaces, and sometimes the formation of a huge star chokes off the formation of smaller sibling stars that haven’t yet emerged from their nebular cocoons.

Our own Sun was born in a cloud of gas and dust some 4.5 billion years ago. It likely formed with other sibling stars, which have moved on and taken up new spots in the galaxy.

So, when you look at gorgeous images of star birth regions, you’re seeing something similar to the place where our own solar system formed, where the elements that make up our Sun, planets, moons, rings, comets, asteroids… and us… concentrated together in the distant past.

More 100 Hours Events

Astronomy, Astronomy, Astronomy

The 100 Hours of Astronomy events just continue on, and millions of people are enjoying and participating. How about you?  Did you watch any of the very cool “Around the World in 80 Telescopes” vodcasts yesterday and today?   I popped in throughout the day to see what’s shakin’ at observatories around (and above) the planet. The ‘casts are available from the web page link above.

The irregular galaxy NGC 55 obtained with the Wide Field Imager on the 2.2-meter MPG/ESO telescope at La Silla Observatory. Its about 7.5 million light-years away. (Click to embiggen.)
The irregular galaxy NGC 55 obtained with the Wide Field Imager on the 2.2-meter MPG/ESO telescope at La Silla Observatory. It's about 7.5 million light-years away. (Click to embiggen.)
The chaotic spiral galaxy NGC 7793, observed with the FORS instrument on the VLT in Paranal. Courtesy ESO. (Click to embiggen.)
The chaotic spiral galaxy NGC 7793, observed with the FORS instrument on the VLT in Paranal. Courtesy ESO. (Click to embiggen.)

Want to find out what’s happening near you?  Check out the Google Map-enabled activity chart here. If your 100 Hours of Astronomy participation is limited to the armchair variety (and hey, there’s nothing like sitting in front of  a warm, toasty screen enjoying astro-images), the European Southern Observatory has released two stunning images of galaxies to celebrate the events.  Both of these galaxies belong to the Sculptor Group of galaxies tha tlie about 7.5 million light-years away.  In NGC 55, astronomers studying planetary nebulae–the end-products of the evolution of stars like our Sun — were able to use their data to determine the distance to this galaxy.  They also think that this galaxy might be joining together with another galaxy, NGC 300.  For NGC 7793, astronomers are intrigued by the chaotic spiral structure it shows.  What causes the chaos?  Good question.  Perhaps an interaction with another galaxy?

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Observing in UAE. (Click to embiggen)
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Observing in Iran. (Click to embiggen)

These are just two of the many images that observatories are releasing for 100 Hours of Astronomy. I’ll try to track some more down and post links. It’s not just observatories releasing images though — folks who are participating in astronomy events around the world are posting images on the 100 Hours photo gallery.  Here are a few of my favorites.

100 Hours of Astronomy Camel Cart in Gujarat, India. (Click to embiggen.)
100 Hours of Astronomy Camel Cart in Manthan, India.
First light in New Zealand -- January 1. By Paul Moss. (Click to embiggen.)
First light in New Zealand -- January 1. By Paul Moss. (Click to embiggen.)

It’s really quite wonderful to see people get so excited about reclaiming the night skies through such activities as 100 Hours and all the events connected to the International Year of Astronomy.   It’s been a great year of astronomy so far, and there’s a LOT more to come!

Now, if some news media would deign to mention this wonderful year of outreach and sky fascination… come on CNN and BEEB and others… let’s have a little astronomy on your pages. People need some awe and wonder in their news, too.