Astronomy Picture of the Day
Posted By admin On October 11, 2011 @ 10:56 am In Photo Essays | Comments Disabled
[1]Image Credit & Copyright: Larry Van Vleet [2]
Explanation: It’s the bubble versus the cloud. NGC 7635, the Bubble Nebula [3], is being pushed out by the stellar wind [4] of massive central star BD+602522 [5]. Next door, though, lives a giant molecular cloud [6], visible to the right. At this place in space, an irresistible force [7] meets animmovable object [8] in an interesting way. The cloud [9] is able to contain the expansion of the bubble gas, but gets blasted by the hot radiation from the bubble [10]‘s central star. The radiation [11] heats up dense regions of the molecular cloud [12] causing it to glow. The Bubble Nebula [13], pictured above [14] in scientifically mapped colors to bring up contrast, is about 10 light-years [15] across and part of a much larger complex [16] of stars and shells. The Bubble Nebula [17] can be seen with a small telescope towards the constellation [18] of the Queen of Aethiopia [19] (Cassiopeia [20]).
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URLs in this post:
[1] Image: http://www.berthoudrecorder.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/bubble_vanvleet_1934.jpg
[2] Larry Van Vleet: http://lvvastro.com/wordpress/?page_id=2
[3] Bubble Nebula: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap091030.html
[4] stellar wind: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap000318.html
[5] BD+602522: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2002AJ....124.3305M
[6] molecular cloud: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090623.html
[7] irresistible force: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irresistible_force_paradox
[8] immovable object: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-s8wPzTQVHwk/TZ23dhVwPTI/AAAAAAAAARY/1SsZ9s_A_J4/s1600/big+pumpkin.jpg
[9] cloud: http://heritage.stsci.edu/1998/31/index.html
[10] bubble: http://www.exploratorium.edu/ronh/bubbles/bubbles.html
[11] radiation: http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/science/know_l1/emspectrum.html
[12] molecular cloud: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molecular_cloud
[13] Bubble Nebula: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap030617.html
[14] pictured above: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
[15] light-years: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/cosmic_distance.html
[16] larger complex: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap100909.html
[17] Bubble Nebula: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap000118.html
[18] constellation: http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~dolan/constellations/extra/constellations.html
[19] Aethiopia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopia_(mythology)
[20] Cassiopeia: http://www.astronomical.org/portal/modules/wfsection/article.php?articleid=18
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