Posted on 12/29/2012 7:53:42 AM PST by SunkenCiv
Explanation: Like a ship plowing through cosmic seas, runaway star Zeta Ophiuchi produces the arcing interstellar bow wave or bow shock seen in this stunning infrared portrait. In the false-color view, bluish Zeta Oph, a star about 20 times more massive than the Sun, lies near the center of the frame, moving toward the left at 24 kilometers per second. Its strong stellar wind precedes it, compressing and heating the dusty interstellar material and shaping the curved shock front. Around it are clouds of relatively undisturbed material. What set this star in motion? Zeta Oph was likely once a member of a binary star system, its companion star was more massive and hence shorter lived. When the companion exploded as a supernova catastrophically losing mass, Zeta Oph was flung out of the system. About 460 light-years away, Zeta Oph is 65,000 times more luminous than the Sun and would be one of the brighter stars in the sky if it weren't surrounded by obscuring dust. The image spans about 1.5 degrees or 12 light-years at the estimated distance of Zeta Ophiuchi.
(Excerpt) Read more at 129.164.179.22 ...
[Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, Spitzer Space Telescope]
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Zeta Oph[iuchi] was likely once a member of a binary star system, its companion star was more massive and hence shorter lived. When the companion exploded as a supernova catastrophically losing mass, Zeta Oph was flung out of the system.
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Zeta Oph[iuchi] was likely once a member of a binary star system, its companion star was more massive and hence shorter lived. When the companion exploded as a supernova catastrophically losing mass, Zeta Oph was flung out of the system.
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Cool pic today.
If you ignore the bright stars....... it looks like an alien head... the neck at the bottom right, a large head, and mouth,eyes,nose, and pointed chin...
Anyone else see this ???
Or
Have I drank too much coffee this morning ?????
I'm not sure what the 24 Km / sec has to do with it. . . . the Earth is orbiting the Sun at that speed, if not even greater.
Circumference (of a circle) = 2 X Pi X D. So if the earth has a circular orbit around the sun (it doesn't, but it's pretty close) then the equation above implies that the earth travels 2 X 3.1415 X 93,000,000 miles in a one year orbit of the sun.
Which is 584,336,233 miles
Divide that number by 365 (days) and then each DAY the earth travels 1,600,921 miles.
Divide again by 24 this time - each HOUR the earth travels 66,705 miles. (Can you feel the speed? Just sitting "still" at your computer and reading this post, you're traveling 66,705 MPH !!)
Divide by 60 - you and the earth are travelling 1,111 miles per MINUTE.
One last time - divide by 60 again - brings us to 18.5 miles per SECOND.
That is MORE than 24 Km / second. And you have taken this ride at 18.5 miles per second since you were born.
Anyone know how fast the sun is traveling around the circumference of the galaxy?
Anyone know how fast our galaxy is falling toward Andromeda?
Anyone know how fast our Local Group if galaxies is falling towards the Great Attractor?
One thing for sure - we are all moving much, MUCH faster than we think we are.
I see a naked women with her arms in air like a good morning stretch
The Mote...
A handy thing to know for these kinds of calculations is that the approximate number of seconds in one year is π x 107. [This is correct to a relative error of 4 parts per 1000, or about a day and a half.]
So the linear velocity is 9.3 x 107 x 2 x π/(π x 107) mi/s. Cancelling π and 107 this makes your calculation 9.3 x 2 mi/s, which even today's students can do in their heads.
Thanks willgolfforfood!
I saw that too, or is it Alfred Hitchcock?
OMGoodness! First I saw the alien, and then the naked woman, more like a pole dancer. Oh, to be that supple again... Sigh...
Still and all, it’s a great picture, Mr. Civilizations.
Have these cosmologists even asked HOW there could be a “bow wave” preceding this star??? The Electric Universe Cosmologists can tell them.
The Mote...
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Re Mote |
it had a tiny mote
A seriously awesome picture. The spread from one end of the plume to the other is 12 light years. The nearest star to our solar system is about 4 light years away. Gives an idea of just how huge this is.
Thank you both. Awesome information in this thread.
Thanks!
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