Posted on 06/07/2021 3:57:13 PM PDT by MtnClimber
Explanation: What’s that new spot of light in Cassiopeia? A nova. Although novas occur frequently throughout the universe, this nova, known as Nova Cas 2021 or V1405 Cas, became so unusually bright in the skies of Earth last month that it was visible to the unaided eye. Nova Cas 2021 first brightened in mid-March but then, unexpectedly, became even brighter in mid-May and remained quite bright for about a week. The nova then faded back to early-May levels, but now is slightly brightening again and remains visible through binoculars. Identified by the arrow, the nova occurred toward the constellation of Cassiopeia, not far from the Bubble Nebula. A nova is typically caused by a thermonuclear explosion on the surface of a white dwarf star that is accreting matter from a binary-star companion -- although details of this outburst are currently unknown. Novas don't destroy the underlying star, and are sometimes seen to recur. The featured image was created from 14 hours of imaging from Detroit, Michigan, USA. Both professional and amateur astronomers will likely continue to monitor Nova Cas 2021 and hypothesize about details of its cause.
For more detail go to the link and click on the image for a high definition image. You can then move the magnifying glass cursor then click to zoom in and click again to zoom out. When zoomed in you can scan by moving the side bars on the bottom and right side of the image.
bttt
Oh that’s simple,
The dust cleared.
That happens all the time.
? No. “Regular” nova’s trip off routinely.
But they are not powerful enough to burn (fuse) enough lower-weight isotopes ions together, then blow those new atoms out into other stars to make all of the atoms we know exist. A puzzle, too often now solved by “waving of the hands” mythically.
Jimmy Page on the left, minus the bow. :-)
Pareidolia makes my mind or is it my eyes, or perhaps my mind’s eye, sees amazing forms and shapes in this photo. It makes it easy for me to understand how our ancient ancestors would look at the night sky and would try to make sense of the random designs they were viewing. Within this random view of the cosmos, that my eyes see, my mind finds there are many faces that can form from these random cosmic designs. It used to bother me that I am able to find form within random images and designs. Yet, now that I know that ability or condition, has a name and is more common then many think, I find it interesting and amazing how my mind interprets what my eyes see.
Wait. It took them until 2021 to find this? Wouldn’t it have blown like light years ago? A thousand years ago? A million or two? ;)
Beautiful, either way. We have had some gorgeous night skies this late Spring, because we’re in a drought. No clouds, no rain, but clear skies. ;)
In August, I can see the Milky Way from my front porch, and it’s really something to see when you have no light ‘pollution’ to contend with.
You are very lucky. I use to see many stars when I was about 10 miles from Minneapolis, Minn. When I would travel maybe 20 miles further away the stars were even more numerous.
Another nova, another civilization nearby gets zapped by all the cosmic rays. One day poof as the rays hit. It will be like the tv show “Life After People”.
Hmmm...still lost. My sky doesn’t look like that at night.
Trust me; I appreciate it! It’s been a very long time since I lived in a town, let alone a city. Never gain, if I can help it. ;)
Probably the best sky viewing ever was camping in the Nevada desert. (I think we were near Lake Mead?) Seemed like the sky went on forever (Um, which it pretty much does!) and I felt very small and insignificant.
That was also my first encounter with howling coyotes nearby; I slept in my truck that night!
They missed a key piece of reporting in This NASA piece. How far away and thus how long ago. The Googler says between 30 and 32 thousand light years away. Maybe it is painted on a cave wall 20,000 years ago by a cave dweller that was only 10,000 light years away.
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