Posted on 08/06/2011 9:57:02 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Explanation: The sands of time are running out for the central star of this hourglass-shaped planetary nebula. With its nuclear fuel exhausted, this brief, spectacular, closing phase of a Sun-like star's life occurs as its outer layers are ejected - its core becoming a cooling, fading white dwarf. In 1995, astronomers used the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) to make a series of images of planetary nebulae, including the one above. Here, delicate rings of colorful glowing gas (nitrogen-red, hydrogen-green, and oxygen-blue) outline the tenuous walls of the hourglass. The unprecedented sharpness of the HST images has revealed surprising details of the nebula ejection process that are helping to resolve the outstanding mysteries of the complex shapes and symmetries of planetary nebulas.
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Reminds me of something, but I just can’t put my finger in it. Hmm!
The eye of God!
Pearl Jam?
Are you saying I can’t find a better man?
The Hubble has changed our view of the Universe FOREVER.
I never get tired of looking at these im ages!
Wholeheartedly agree.
One of the things that should be done in space is another servicing mission — as such time as the US again has the capability.
People seem to think the Shuttle program wasn’t worth much.
These pictures tell a different story.
Mysterious eye bump.
The Shuttle was a huge waste of money for what it accomplished; had the Shuttle-derived vehicles suggested back when been developed, uh, back when, the stuff accomplished by the Shuttle would have been done more quickly, cheaper, and maybe even without loss of those lives (as well as the loss of two orbiters).
But yes, I’m glad it existed, because it was the only manned space program the US had for about thirty years. That’s a record that will probably not be broken by any launch system, ever. Also, it isn’t as if the cash for the launches was loaded on the Shuttle and lost in space, it all stayed right down here with us. :’)
And it appears that the Shuttle-derived vehicles are going to be built, in order to provide both heavy lift capability for long-range missions, as well as man-rated boosts to TLI and beyond.
The worst waste of money IMHO was the ISS, which is going to have to be splashed not long after it is finally, finally completed. One of the few uses of the thing that comes to mind is people could use it to create a hundred mile high club but if the denials are to be believed it hasn’t even been used for that. :-))
Most of the cost of the ISS was in STS launches. But it is a waste, and it’s an atrocity that something we paid for (directly, or indirectly through subsidies to the Russkies) was a political repudiation of Ronald Reagan’s call for Space Station Freedom.
Egad! It’s Sauron!
Uh oh! Quick, Civ! The Ring! I know it’s your Precious, but you must surrender it to the fire!
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