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… and Back Again

This picture of the star formation region NGC 3582 was taken using the Wide Field Imager at ESO's La Silla Observatory in Chile. The image reveals giant loops of gas ejected by dying stars that bear a striking resemblance to solar prominences. Courtesy ESO, Digitized Sky Survey 2 and Joe DePasquale

The process of stardeath is one of those events that is not just the end of a star’s life, but possibly the beginning of another one’s existence. In some regions of our galaxy (and in many other galaxies), the explosion of a massive star in an event called a supernova, not only ejects material from the star that will eventually be recycled into other stars. It also sends shock waves through space that can compress nearby nebulae (clouds of gas and dust). That “ripple effect” starts the nebula down the path to star formation as the material begins to coalesce, heat up, and eventually “turn on” in the process of star birth. If the birth cloud has enough heavy elements to form planets, and the conditions are right, the stellar babies could also be born with worlds of their own. This is what happened to create our Sun and planets, more than 4.5 billion years ago.

The image above is a scene of violent stellar destruction, lit up by strong ionizing radiation (UV light) from nearby newborn stars. It’s a star-forming region in the Milky Way called RCW 57, and the nebula itself (the glowing, loop-filled cloud of gas and dust) is called NGC 3582. Some of the stars forming in regions like NGC 3582 are much heavier than the Sun. These monster stars emit energy at prodigious rates and have very short lives that end in supernova explosions. The material ejected from these dramatic events creates bubbles in the surrounding gas and dust. This is the probable cause of the loops visible in this picture. When the stellar beacons that are heating up this cloud start to die they will also send out clouds of gas and dust like these, and the forces of their deaths may well send the clouds back through a cycle of star birth, creating new stars that will light up the death-clouds of their forebears.

The image was processed by the European Southern Observatory (ESO), using observational data identified by Joe DePasquale, from the United States, who participated in ESO’s Hidden Treasures 2010 astrophotography competition. The activity was organised by ESO in October–November 2010, for everyone who enjoys making beautiful images of the night sky using astronomical data obtained using professional telescopes.

Celebrating April 12, 1961: Happy Yuri’s Night and 30 Years of Shuttle Flights

Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin on his way to the launch of Vostok 1. Courtesy NASA Great Images Project.

Today is the 50th anniversary of the flight into space of Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. In the annals of the big space race between the United States and the Former Soviet Union, Gagarin carried the Soviet hopes aloft, beating the United States’s own effort to put a person into orbit. He climbed into his Vostok spacecraft, was launched into a single orbit of our home planet and returned safely to the planet — all on the same day in 1961.

Of course, this feat was a smack in the face of the U.S. space effort, which wasn’t doing well at the time. But, in time, I think we’ve all come to see what a great first step it was — and the effect it had on NASA’s own plans for space dominance. We may have had a space race for a decade, but since those days, the domain of space exploration has become — as it should always have been — a multi-national effort. And for that, we have this man to thank.

The launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis. Courtesy NASA.

Cosmonaut Gagarin never flew into space again, but his achievement marks an important step for humans in space. Following in his trail have been a solid line of astronauts and cosmonauts who claimed space (and, for the U.S. the Moon) as the place to explore.

In the 50 years since Cosmonaut Gagarin’s trip to space, hundreds of people have gone into space. They’ve lived in and explored the near-Earth environment. A few went to the Moon. And many more of us have watched as they did so. Some of us even dreamed of doing it ourselves. And, in a most fitting coincidence, we’re also celebrating 30 years of NASA’s shuttle program — the fleet of vehicles that made so many discoveries possible.

On this special anniversary — and to celebrate Yuri’s Night and the commemoration of the shuttle program — here’s a toast to the man who did it first and the folks who built, maintained and flew the space shuttles:

Nas Drovya!

The Spacewriter's Ramblings

From Starbirth to Stardeath…

50 Years of Human Space Flight

Exploring Science and the Cosmos