Astronomy Picture of the Day

NASA ^ | 4/13/08 | C. R. O'Dell and K. Handron (Rice University), NASA

[sig226]

Curious Cometary Knots in the Helix Nebula
Credit: C. R. O'Dell and K. Handron (Rice University), NASA

Explanation: What causes unusual knots of gas and dust in planetary nebulas? Seen also in the Ring Nebula, the Dumbbell Nebula and the Eskimo Nebula, the knots' existence was not initially predicted and their origins are still not well understood. Pictured above is a fascinating image of the Helix Nebula by the Hubble Space Telescope showing tremendous detail of its mysterious gaseous knots. The above cometary knots have masses similar to the Earth but have radii typically several times the orbit of Pluto. One hypothesis for the fragmentation and evolution of the knots includes existing gas being driven out by a less dense but highly energetic stellar wind of the central evolving star. The Helix Nebula is the closest example of a planetary nebula created at the end of the life of a Sun-like star. The Helix Nebula, given a technical designation of NGC 7293, lies about 700 light-years away towards the constellation of Aquarius.

[sig226]

I've been extremely busy the last few days and I haven't had time to post the apod thread until late. I'm sorry, but I've completed something that I've been hard at for nearly a year. If you're wondering, I demonstrated my third proficiency on Thursday.

[sig226]

[Enosh]

"apod..."

... which reminds me, I noticed something recently. -> Zottieboy

Ha! ~ Leap

[Red_Devil 232]

Looks like a squadon of squid!

[HoosierHawk]

INCOMING!!

[ChocChipCookie]

Thanks for these APDs. I always look forward to them, and my husband often uses them for wallpaper.

[sig226]

Refresh my memory - who or what was a Zottieboy?

[Enosh]

Hottieboy, now apparently banned, started the apod back in '06 before you picked it up.

He and I parted ways over his use of racial slurs on another forum, where we were both moderators.

Good riddance to bad rubbish.

[Enosh]

Oh, and “Leap” is me, Leapfrog.

[potlatch]

Beautiful graphic and I was happy to find your link to all of the Astronomy pictures. They make wonderful backgrounds for webpages.

[devolve]

SOMEWHERE OUT THERE

[potlatch]

Lol, that's pretty! Looks like an under water scene too, doesn't it?

Somewhere Out There is a hunka, hunka.....space rock, lol, and a little UFO with unknown passengers.

[devolve]

.

Underwater - right

That NASA pic is 4 quarters combined

A bit pixelated - it was only 800x600 - now it’s 1024x768

[potlatch]

Do you have it posted in 4 sections? The 1024 is perfect on my screen, no scrollbar at all.

I love many of these space graphics, mostly the colorful ones.

[devolve]

.

I used [img src="" width="100%" height="968" border=0]

The original NASA pic was made up from 4 separate area photos

.

[potlatch]

I just did a flicker of the 900X600 posted above and it is over 500KB. Need to do it over again at a ‘lesser’ setting which isn’t as perfect, but....

[devolve]

[potlatch]

That looks very good devolve. The pink is showing up more than the other one I just looked at!! Nice.

[devolve]

.

Over a long copper wire and fiberoptic cable

We even jazz up the NASA graphics

That’s 600x450 posted at 980x736 - 180 colors - 320K

[potlatch]

Looks good. The little white star has turned into a square box in space, lol. I almost painted it out but didn’t know if you wanted that. It flickers too and you can see faint rays from it.