Astronomy Fun Fact:The material from the Cassiopeia A explosion is rushing outward at supersonic speeds in excess of ten million miles per hour.
As this matter crashes into gas that surrounds the former star, shock waves analogous to awesome sonic booms heat the gas and heat the ejected matter.
Get on the APOD PING list! 
To: MozartLover; Joan912; NovemberCharlie; snowfox; Dawgsquat; viligantcitizen; theDentist; grlfrnd; ...
APOD PING!
To: petuniasevan
How awsome that we exist for a moment in this great explosion & understand thats our life!
To: petuniasevan; CaTexan
Incredible picture. Thanks! 
To: petuniasevan
Everywhere we look we see material ejected from exploded stars. Instances where such material is condensing to form new stars seem rare by comparison. They say the material that makes earth has been processed through stars several times, but if the Milky Way is 15 billion years old, has there been time for this to happen frequently? A few instances [100 or so observed within 200 or so lightyears of the sun and heavy elements such as iron still not seen in earthsized quantities] seems possible, not 30 billion solar systems as an earlier thread discussed.
To: petuniasevan
WOW!
To: kayak; Utah Girl
You two have to see this!
To: JRandomFreeper; Snowtrill
Look at this! Isn't it gorgeous???
To: petuniasevan
Okay, I finally bumped the "Fox Fur Nebula" off my screen.........this is my new wallpaper.:)
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson